Beyond nature and nurture: The influence of lay gender theories on self-stereotyping

Abstract

Although the nature versus nurture debate about gender differences has persisted for decades, few studies have examined the implications of individuals' nature versus nurture beliefs. In the present research, we examined how women's beliefs that gender is biologically determined or socially constructed affected their self-stereotyping tendency. Specifically, we hypothesized that holding a biological gender theory would orient women to view possessing gender stereotypical characteristics as inevitable, and thus would be linked to stronger gender self-stereotyping (even for negative feminine traits) than would a social gender theory. In two studies, using both correlational and experimental designs, we found as predicted that the biological gender theory was linked to stronger gender self-stereotyping tendency (as reflected by greater endorsements of negative feminine traits and slower reaction time in denying stereotypic feminine traits). Moreover, this relationship holds even when the participants' sexist attitudes were statistically controlled. Implications of these findings for maintenance of gender inequality were discussed.

Notes

1. In addition, the correlation between participants' scores on the biological theory measure and the social theory measure was strongly negative(r = −.55, p < .001), suggesting that the manipulations may have polarized participants' attitudes in responding to explicit measures of the gender theories. Given this possibility, we treated participants' scores on the two theory measures as manipulation checks only and did not expect that these scores would necessarily predict participants' self-stereotyping tendency.