67

I

n 1977, a group of college men were induced to talk on the phone to either an

attractive female or an unattractive female. Not surprisingly, men liked the attrac-

tive female more than the unattractive female. However, there’s a twist—all of the

men were talking to the same female—only half were shown a picture of an attrac-

tive person and half were shown a picture of an unattractive person. Clearly, the idea

that “attractive people are nicer and more likeable” was operating here. The fact that

these men’s beliefs were influenced by the picture is not surprising. What may be more

surprising is the fact that the woman behaved differently toward the men who thought

she was attractive versus unattractive. When a set of judges who were blind to condi-

tion (i.e., did not know which picture the men saw) listened to the audiotaped phone

calls, they rated the woman as warmer and friendlier when she was talking to a male

whothought she was attractive than unattractive (Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977).

The woman’s behavior is an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, she

came to fulfill the expectations that the men had—that attractive women are nicer

than unattractive women. This study illustrates the dangers of our expectancies. It is

not only that our expectations influence our own behavior, but they also influence

the behavior of others so that they confirm our expectancy. Now, imagine what could

happen in the case of gender. We have strong expectancies about the differences

between men and women. There is clearly an opportunity for those expectations

to affect our behavior toward men and women so that they produce the stereotypes

we hold.

In Chapter 2, I provided a brief history of how gender roles have been conceptu-

alized and measured. This research was devoted to identifying the features of gender

roles. In this chapter, I investigate people’s attitudes toward gender roles. Do you have

favorable attitudes toward someone with traditional gender roles? How do you be-

have when confronted with people who do not conform to gender-role expectations?

CHAPTER 3

Gender-Role Attitudes

M03_HELG0185_04_SE_C03.indd 67 6/21/11 12:21 PM