The malleability of men's gender self-concept

Abstract

The present study tested the influence of social status and gender salience on the malleability of men's gender self-concepts at an automatic versus controlled level. Male participants were placed in a superior or subordinate role relative to a male or female confederate for a joint task; subsequently their automatic and controlled beliefs about themselves were measured. We predicted first, that men placed in a subordinate role would protect against the threat to their self-concept by automatically self-stereotyping more than men placed in a superior role. As a secondary hypothesis, we predicted that the presence of a female interaction partner would increase the situational salience of gender, which in turn would evoke gender stereotypic self-descriptions. Results confirmed these hypotheses. These data suggest that men's gender self-concepts are malleable and that situational cues differentially affect self-conceptions at an automatic and controlled level.

Notes

1. The confederates were about 30 years old; thus both status manipulations (professor and student) were believable.

2. The ANOVA did not reveal any other significant effects (Fs < 1).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nilanjana Dasgupta

This research was Cade McCall's Master's thesis conducted under the supervision of Nilanjana Dasgupta when both authors were at New School University. Data collection was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (R03 MH66036-01) and from New School University to the second author We are indebted to Abraham Greenwald and Maile O'Hara for serving as confederates, and to January Massin for serving as the experimenter in this study