We conceptualized gender as a constellation of behaviors that a person both “has” and “does” to examine college students’ endorsement of feminist and modern sexist attitudes. Men and women “have” internal, personal aspects of gender such as gender identification and stereotypically gendered traits, and they “do” their gender by engaging in stereotypically gendered activities and associating with peers. Men (n = 237) and women (n = 463) completed established self-report measures of gender identification, gender-typed personality traits, engagement in gender-typed activities, same-sex peer affiliation, feminism, and modern sexism. Structural equation modeling showed that correlates of feminist and modern sexist attitudes were different for men and women. For men, less endorsement of feminist attitudes was related to greater engagement in masculine activities, whereas engaging in feminine activities and endorsing feminine traits were related to more endorsement of feminist attitudes. Men who identified more with other men also reported attitudes that were less feminist and more modern sexist. For women, greater endorsement of masculine traits was associated with greater feminist attitudes, but engaging in masculine activities was related to less feminist attitudes. For women, none of the variables was related to sexist attitudes. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of feminist and sexist attitudes in U.S. college students are discussed.

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We tested interventions to reduce “sunk-cost bias,” the tendency to continue investing in failing plans even when those plans have soured and are no longer rewarding. We showed members of a national U.S. life-span panel a hypothetical scenario about a failing plan that was halfway complete. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention to focus on how to improve the situation, an intervention to focus on thoughts and feelings, or a no-intervention control group. First, we found that the thoughts and feelings intervention reduced sunk-cost bias in decisions about project completion, as compared to the improvement intervention and the no-intervention control. Second, older age was associated with greater willingness to cancel the failing plan across all three groups. Third, we found that introspection processes helped to explain the effectiveness of the interventions. Specifically, the larger reduction in sunk-cost bias as observed in the thoughts and feelings intervention (vs. the improvement intervention) was associated with suppression of future-oriented thoughts of eventual success, and with suppression of augmentations of the scenario that could make it seem reasonable to continue the plan. Fourth, we found that introspection processes were related to age differences in decisions. Older people were less likely to mention future-oriented thoughts of eventual success associated with greater willingness to continue the failing plan. We discuss factors to consider when designing interventions for reducing sunk-cost bias.

Objectives Retirement timing has been linked to a host of outcomes for individuals, families, and societies. The present study predicted retirement timing using profiles of preretirement family caregiving and gender. Method Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, cluster analysis was used to create profiles of preretirement family caregiving (operationalized as time and financial transfers to aging parents and adult children). These profiles, as well as gender, were used to predict later retirement timing. Results Four distinct preretirement caregiving profiles were evident. All profiles retired, on average, earlier than their full eligibility for Social Security benefits. A main effect of caregiving profile, but not gender, was evident. The Eldercare profile, which was characterized by high levels of time and financial transfers to aging parents, retired the earliest. There was not a significant interaction between caregiving profile and gender. Discussion When men enacted female-typical caregiving roles, their retirement timing resembled women's. Eldercare, in particular, was associated with earlier retirement timing. Implications for individual retirement decision-making and policy are discussed.

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