The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Gender-Role Attitudes 89

high school students were randomly assigned

to a condition in which they were told male

students performed better than female stu-

dents on the test in the past (i.e., activation of

negative stereotype) or a condition in which

no information was given about others’ per-

formance (control condition; Keller, 2002).

As shown in Figure 3.10, females performed

worse when the negative stereotype was ac-

tivated compared to the control condition,

whereas male students’ performance was

unaffected by the manipulation. The idea

that the activation of a stereotype interfered

with performance is referred to as stereotype

threat, a concept that will be elaborated on in

Chapter 6.

On a global level, the self-fulfilling

prophecy was supported by a study of 34 na-

tions that linked stereotypes about women

and science with women’s test scores in sci-

ence (Nosek et al., 2009). In this study, peo-

ple’s “implicit” attitudes toward women and

science were measured because few people

will explicitly endorse the stereotype that

women have less aptitude than men for sci-

ence. Implicit attitudes toward sensitive

subjects are measured through the Implicit

Association Test (IAT). With the IAT, re-

spondents are shown a set of words and asked

to assign the words to a category. On some

trials, the categories are connected in a ste-

reotypical way (i.e., men and science) and on

some trials, the categories are connected in a

counterstereotypical way (i.e., men and lib-

eral arts). Attitudes are measured in terms of

response times, with the inference being that

respondents will be quicker to categorize

words that reflect their beliefs. (See Figure 3.11

for an example and try this yourself by going

to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.)

Using a Web-based IAT, the investi-

gators found that stronger implicit connec-

tions of men to science were associated with

student is about 20 years old and the profes-

sor about 50. There are exceptions here, too,

as you may find a 50-year-old return-to-

school student and a 30-year-old professor.

Although there are exceptions, categories

generally simplify information processing.

The danger of stereotyping is that it in-

fluences our perceptions of and behavior to-

ward others. Stereotyping can influence our

behavior toward others in such a way that

others confirm the stereotype. This is known

as aself-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if

you believe boys are not good at reading and

do not like to read, you might not give your

male preschooler as many books to read as

your female preschooler. If he doesn’t have

the same opportunities to read as his sister,

will it be a surprise that he has more diffi-

culty reading than she does? No, your stereo-

type will have created a situation that then

confirms the stereotype.

An example of this self-fulfilling

prophecy was demonstrated with respect to

females’ performance on a math test. Female

1

Feminine

Appearance

Speaker Persuasiveness

Masculine

Non-

Feminist

Feminist

2

3

4

5

6

7

FIGURE 3.9 Paradoxically, feminist women

were more influenced by a feminine-appearing

speaker than a masculine-appearing speaker

delivering a feminist message. The appearance

of the speaker did not influence non-feminist

women.

Source: Adapted from Bullock and Fernald (2003).

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