Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Abstract

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries ( N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.

WEIRD–Confucian comparisons: Ongoing cultural biases in psychology’s evidence base and some recommendations for improving global representation.

“…Cross-cultural researchers increasingly understand the importance of sampling beyond WEIRD and Confucian circles, are eager to expand such research, and are actively trying to build infrastructures and establish partnerships. We discern an increase in at least two major approaches to research, and a third emerging practice, which leads us beyond the WEIRD–Confucian dichotomy:In-depth studies into the cultural psychology of specific world regions beyond the WEIRD–Confucian dichotomy, including Mediterranean (Uskul, Kirchner-Häusler, et al, 2023), Latin American (Krys et al, 2022; Salvador et al, 2022), Indian (Savani et al, 2012), Middle Eastern (San Martin et al, 2018), and sub-Saharan African (Adams & Plaut, 2003) regions.Large-scale cross-cultural psychological comparisons covering 30+ (Gelfand et al, 2011; Vignoles et al, 2016), 40+ (Krys et al, 2016; Leung & Bond, 2004), 50+ (Eriksson et al, 2021; Krys et al, 2021), or even 60+ (Gardiner et al, 2020; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al, 2023) countries. Large-scale data sets gathered by sociologists and political scientists—for example, World Values Survey (Inglehart et al, 2020)—help tap into psychological phenomena too.Recently, a third line drawing from the previous two has started emerging: some articles try to integrate/synthesize the complexity of non-WEIRD cultures across multiple world regions.…”

“…Large-scale cross-cultural psychological comparisons covering 30+ (Gelfand et al, 2011; Vignoles et al, 2016), 40+ (Krys et al, 2016; Leung & Bond, 2004), 50+ (Eriksson et al, 2021; Krys et al, 2021), or even 60+ (Gardiner et al, 2020; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al, 2023) countries. Large-scale data sets gathered by sociologists and political scientists—for example, World Values Survey (Inglehart et al, 2020)—help tap into psychological phenomena too.…”

Towards Gender Harmony Dataset: Gender Beliefs and Gender Stereotypes in 62 Countries

“…This dataset has been so far used to test men’s support for gender equality across countries 10 ; to establish cross-culturally valid, psychometric properties and correlates of precarious manhood beliefs 11 ; to examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views 12 ; to investigate whether the degree of endorsement of precarious manhood beliefs at the country level was associated with various risk-related health behaviors and outcomes 13 , to test the double standard in gender rules across countries 14 ; and to test whether country-level precarious manhood beliefs were associated with more negative attitudes, fewer rights, more restrictive laws, and reduced safety for LGBTQ+ groups 15 .…”

Who cares? Effects of gendered self‐perceptions on dropout intentions in communal degree programs

“…The communal self-perceptions scale was developed based on items from Kosakowska-Berezecka et al (2022). The participants rated how much four communal traits described them (i.e., compassionate, caring, warm, supportive), answered on a 7-point scale from 1 = does not describe me at all to 7 = describes me very well.…”