Comparing Implicit Gender Stereotypes Between Women and Men with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure

Gender is a pervasive social categorization bearing substantial impact on personal and social behavior throughout the lifespan. In some ways this categorization may perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination, such as women and men being viewed as suited for different educational and career pathways and family responsibilities. Much of the empirical literature and the gender theories that have been built from that literature are founded on self-report measures of gender perceptions. Self-reports of cognitive phenomena are vulnerable to social demand effects, a concern that has occasioned a comparatively small body of gender perception research with implicit measures. The current study explored implicit gender stereotypes among and between women and men with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, which can provide more specific assessments of biased attitudes than many comparable implicit measures. The results confirmed some previous findings, revealing stereotype-consistent attitudes and gender differences in the magnitude of those attitudes. Both of the genders measured provided response patterns indicating perceptions of women as emotional, gentle, and sensitive and of men as dominant, forceful, and logical. More specific and nuanced effects were also revealed, including a number of seemingly egalitarian effects and one stereotype-inconsistent bias for women when responding to the combination of women and the words dominant, forceful, and logical. These latter findings would be inaccessible with alternative implicit measures. These results may provide a foundation for a broader and deeper program of future research on the personal and social impact of gender stereotypes.