Anonymously male: Social media avatar icons are implicitly male and resistant to change

Abstract

Abstract

Is Man the Measure of All Things? A Social Cognitive Account of Androcentrism

“…Hegarty and Pratto (2001) found that participants' tendency to focus on gay men more than straight men to explain differences was reduced when participants believed that gay men represented the majority of the research sample. In contrast, recent studies on gender and race-based frequency manipulations were ineffective in reducing participants' tendency to use men to represent humanity (Bailey & LaFrance, 2016a) and to think of Whiteness as being unmarked (Hegarty, 2017). Yet, these studies were limited in duration, and longer lasting interventions might have a greater impact.…”

“…This work parallels research that asks participants to list examples of different categories (e.g., Battig & Montague, 1969). People are more likely to describe a person, a voter, a famous person, an American, and a gender unspecified book character as male than as female (Bailey & LaFrance, 2016a; DeLoache, Cassidy, & Carpenter, 1987; Gastil, 1990; M. C. Hamilton, 1991; Merritt & Kok, 1995; Miller, Taylor, & Buck, 1991; Moyer, 1997; van Berkel, Molina, & Mukherjee, 2017).…”

“…People generally use more male than female imagery, characters, and examples to represent categories that technically include all genders (e.g., Bailey & LaFrance, 2016a). Furthermore, masculine generic language continues to be used more than “feminine generic” language (Sczesny et al, 2015), despite efforts to discourage the use of masculine generics (American Psychological Association [APA] Publication Manual Task Force, 1978; Gleichbehandlungsgesetz [GIBG], 2004).…”

“…However, other studies find that men can be substantially more androcentric than women. Men are more likely than women to pick a man to represent gender-inclusive categories (Bailey & LaFrance, 2016a; Bailey & LaFrance, 2016b; Moyer, 1997), to generate male imagery following a gender-neutral prompt (Bruckmüller et al, 2012; Gastil, 1990; M. C. Hamilton, 1991; Khosroshahi, 1989; Switzer, 1990), to name men first when both common genders are described (Hegarty et al, 2011), and to use research samples of only male participants (Ader & Johnson, 1994).…”

“…An Internet user creates a social media account and is assigned an icon by default that looks male (Bailey & LaFrance, 2016a). A student reads the Bible verse, "man shall not live on bread alone" (Deuteronomy 8:3, New King James Version), for which man can be taken to mean people (New Living Translation).…”