The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

92 Chapter 3

for behavior that is not normative, but unique.

For example, we are more likely to infer that

a person is emotional if he or she cries during

a comedy than during a sad movie. Because

many people cry during sad movies, this be-

havior is considered normative, so crying dur-

ing a sad movie does not say anything about

an individual’s personality. Crying during a

comedy, however, is not normative and leads

to stronger trait attributions for behavior.

Thus, we are also more likely to infer aggres-

sion in a woman who uses power in her speech

than in a man who uses power in his speech

because the woman’s behavior is more unique.

Another reason that it is difficult to al-

ter stereotypes is thebacklash effect. When

people display counterstereotypical behavior,

they may be penalized. In a laboratory study,

college students competed against a confed-

erate who either outperformed them in a ste-

reotypical domain (e.g., women categorizing

pictures of toddlers) or a counterstereotypical

domain (e.g., women categorizing pictures of

football players; Rudman & Fairchild, 2004).

When losing to someone who succeeded in a

counterstereotypical domain, both female and

male participants sabotaged the confederate’s

future performance by providing unhelpful

assistance. When losing to someone who suc-

ceeded in a stereotypical domain, there was no

sabotage. It appears that people are well aware

of the backlash effect, as a subsequent experi-

ment showed that participants who succeeded

in a counterstereotypical domain tried to con-

ceal their performance. Thus, the backlash

effect serves to maintain stereotypes by penal-

izing people for counterstereotypical behavior,

dissuading people from publicizing counter-

stereotypical behavior, and by undermining

performance in counterstereotypical domains.

There are circumstances in which stereo-

types can be changed. First, it is easier to dis-

confirm stereotypical traits when the behavior

(e.g., someone told him to play with the baby)

because attentiveness to children is not consis-

tent with the male gender-role stereotype. Test

this idea yourself in Do Gender 3.4 by coming

up with stereotype-consistent and stereotype-

inconsistent behaviors and asking people to

make attributions for those behaviors.

Sometimes, when we cannot ignore

stereotype-inconsistent information, we in-

stead view the behavior as more extreme. For

example, assertiveness may be viewed as more

extreme when displayed by a woman than

byaman.Correspondent inference theory

(Jones & Davis, 1965) can explain why this

happens. According to this theory, we are

more likely tomake dispositionalattributions

DO GENDER 3.4

Attributions for

Stereotype-Consistent and

Stereotype-Inconsistent Behavior

Identify a set of five behaviors that are

stereotype consistent for men and five

behaviors that are stereotype inconsis-

tent for men. An example of a stereotype-

consistent behavior is “Joe watches football

on television.” An example of a stereotype-

inconsistent behavior is “Joe is washing the

dishes.” Now, do the same for women. An

example of a stereotype-consistent behav-

ior is “Maria is sewing a shirt.” An example

of a stereotype-inconsistent behavior is

“Maria is changing the oil in her car.”

Ask 10 men and 10 women to ex-

plain each of the behaviors. Categorize

each explanation as dispositional (due to

something about the person; a trait) or

situational (due to something about the

environment, such as luck, chance, or

the force of an external agent). It is best to

be blind to the sex of the person who gave

you the response.

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