Subliminal Gender Stereotypes: Who Can Resist?. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Breen, Jolien A.; Spears, Russell; Kuppens, Toon; de Lemus, Soledad
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 44:Number 12(2018)
• Page Start: 1648
• Page End: 1663
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: subliminal stereotypes -- resistance -- social identity -- identification with feminists -- identification with women; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167218771895
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

We examine women's responses to subliminal gender stereotypes, that is, stereotypes present outside conscious awareness. Previous research suggests that subtle stereotypes elicit acceptance and assimilation, but we predict that subliminal exposure to gender stereotypes will trigger resistance in some women. Specifically, we expect resistance to occur among women who are relatively strongly identified with feminists, but not with the broader group of women. We predict that resistance takes the form of persistence in stereotypically masculine domains and (implicit) in-group bias. Indeed, we found that subliminal exposure to stereotypes (vs. counter-stereotypes) led women who identify relatively strongly with feminists, but less strongly with women, to (a) persist in a math task, (b) show increased willingness to sacrifice men in a Moral Choice Dilemma task, and (c) show implicit in-group bias on an evaluative priming task. This evidence of resistance suggests that members of devalued groups are more resilient than previously thought.