Gender stereotyping and decision processes: Extending and reversing the gender bias in fame judgments.

Abstract

M. R. Banaji and A. G. Greenwald (1995) demonstrated a gender bias in fame judgments--that is, an increase in judged fame due to prior processing that was larger for male than for female names. They suggested that participants shift criteria between judging men and women, using the more liberal criterion for judging men. This "criterion-shift" account appeared problematic for a number of reasons. In this article, 3 experiments are reported that were designed to evaluate the criterion-shift account of the gender bias in the false-fame effect against a distribution-shift account. The results were consistent with the criterion-shift account, and they helped to define more precisely the situations in which people may be ready to shift their response criterion on an item-by-item basis. In addition, the results were incompatible with an interpretation of the criterion shift as an artifact of the experimental situation in the experiments reported by M. R. Banaji and A. G. Greenwald.

On the bounded rationality of gender stereotyping in fame judgments

“…In the present experiment we observed a gender bias (or a reversed gender bias) for familiarized as well as nonfamiliarized nonfamous names. This replicates the pattern of data reported by Buchner et al (2000), and we also observed it in other experiments (Buchner & Wippich, 1996;Steffens et al, 1999). This data pattern could be an effect of materials.…”

“…In contrast, if the likelihood for a female name being famous is higher, the result is a reversed gender bias. Matching response behaviour to the fame of study phase names was also observed in another experiment (Buchner, Steffens, & Berry, 2000, Experiment 2): Very famous men but no very famous women were presented. Consequently, fame was more readily assigned to male as opposed to female names from the study phase, resulting in a gender bias.…”

Gender bias in fame judgments: Implicit gender stereotyping or matching study phase fame?

“…The matching hypothesis makes the additional prediction that a reversed gender bias should emerge if studied females names are more famous than studied male names. Buchner et al (2000) did not corroborate this hypothesis. However, their materials and design differed from Banaji and Greenwald's (1995) in important respects.…”

“…Indeed, Buchner and Wippich (1996, Experiment 1) did not replicate the gender bias in the false fame effect, and when they found a gender bias in their Experiment 2, it depended on the sex role orientation of their participants (but not on their sex). Other, as yet unpublished results from our lab (Steffens et al, 1999) also nourish the suspicion that the gender bias in fame judgments may be a rather fleeting phenomenon, which, when found, may take different forms, depending on the precise study and test phase materials used (for details, see Buchner et al, 2000).…”

The Role of Strategy in Mixed-Gender Group Interactions: A Study of the Television Show “The Weakest Link”

“…Motivational effects for gender differences have also been documented (e.g., Beyer 1998;Buchner et al 2000;Martell 1991Martell , 1996. For example, Martell (1996) demonstrated that stereotype consistent memory retrieval (i.e., recalling favorable and unfavorable information differentially for men and women) could not account for women's work being judged as less effective than men's when actual performance was the same and information about performance was unambiguous.…”