The Attractive Executive: Effects of Sex of Business Associates on Attributions of Competence and Social Skills

Wilson, Midge; Crocker, Jennifer; Brown, Clifford E.; Johnson, Debra M.; Liotta, Richard F.; Konat, Janet

doi:10.1207/s15324834basp0601_2

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…7 This is well illustrated by work on management and legislatures. Wilson et al (1985) note female executives are perceived as more competent when occupying one position in a group of ten executives; but as the number of female executives increases (and thus moves beyond rarity) women's perceived competence decreases (see also : Abramson et al 1977). Work on critical mass in legislatures indicates as the overall presence of women in the institution changes, so too does the way in which gender shapes outcomes (Thames and Williams 2013).…”

Section: Gender Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shifting our focus back to the Court, we contend gender schematic language does not predict female attorneys securing justice-votes when women occupy few places at the Bar because low numbers magnify competence for decision-makers (Abramson et al 1977; Taylor and Fiske 1978). But, as more women come to the Bar the context changes and evaluations are increasingly rooted in gender schemas (Bauer 2015; Sanbonmatsu 2002; Wilson et al 1985). We now turn to a detailed discussion of our expectations.…”

Section: Gender Schemas and Securing Justice-votesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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You Think; Therefore I Am: Gender Schemas and Context in Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court, 1979–2016

Gleason

Smart

2022

Political Research Quarterly

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Attorneys’ ability to secure justice-votes is shaped by gender schemas, subconscious expectations which hold women should use more emotion than men. This poses few problems for male attorneys since men and attorneys are both expected to avoid emotion. But, women are placed in a double-bind with competing professional and personal expectations. We argue gender schemas are not static rather they change with the context of the Court. Introducing a new dataset inclusive of all oral arguments from 1979 to 2016, we utilize quantitative textual analysis and find gender schemas predict securing justice-votes as the Bar becomes more diverse and justices become more conservative. Our results raise normative concerns about female attorneys’ ability to substantively contribute to the Court’s case law.

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Section: Gender Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gender Schemas and Securing Justice-votesmentioning

confidence: 99%

You Think; Therefore I Am: Gender Schemas and Context in Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court, 1979–2016

Gleason

Smart

2022

Political Research Quarterly

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“…The tape used for the final study was selected for its excellent quality and for the voice of the speaker. The tape was made from a script used in previous research (Wilson, et al, 1985). It consisted of 30 statements, each of which was a suggestion relating to marketing a perfume.…”

Section: Audio Tapementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Clothing Attractiveness on Perceptions

Lennon

1990

Home Economics Research Journal

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In many physical attractiveness studies, it is clothing and other appearance variables that are manipulated, not actual physical beauty, in order to vary physical attractiveness. Thus, results that have been attributed to physical attractiveness may actually be due to clothing attractiveness. The purpose of this research was to determine whether people perceive others differentially as a function of the attractiveness of their clothing. Slides of six different models in business attire, three wearing attractive clothing and three wearing unattractive clothing, served as stimuli. Fifty-nine participants listened to a pre-recorded audio tape consisting of 30 suggestions relative to marketing a perfume. As a comment was heard, a slide of the woman purported to have made the comment was projected. Subjects rated the women on competence, work comfort, and sociability. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance revealed that, as expected, models dressed in attractive clothing were perceived more positively than models dressed in unattractive clothing on each of the three dependent variables. These results provide some support for a clothing attractiveness stereotype that may function analogously to the well-documented physical attractiveness stereotype. It is known that physical attractiveness, a variable over which one has little control, exerts a potent influence in social situations. These results imply that clothing attractiveness, a variable over which one has potential control, might exert a similar influence.

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What is beautiful is good, but…: A meta-analytic review of research on the physical attractiveness stereotype.

Eagly¹,

Ashmore²,

Makhijani³

et al. 1991

Psychological Bulletin

1,522

1,051

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This review demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase what is beautiful is good. Although subjects in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study Consistent with our implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that subjects were asked to make: The differences in subjects* perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information. One of the most widely cited conclusions from research on physical attractiveness is summarized by Dion, Berscheid, and Walster's (1972) claim that, in people's perceptions of others, "what is beautiful is good" (p. 285). This statement linking beauty and goodness suggests the existence of a stereotype whereby physically attractive individuals are believed to possess a wide variety of positive personal qualities. In this article, we integrate the available research on the physical attractiveness stereotype to determine the extent to which the statement that what is beautiful is good provides an accurate summary of people's inferences from cues that convey physical attractiveness. In the classic study on the physical attractiveness stereotype, Dion and her associates (1972) had subjects rate facial photographs that had been selected on the basis of judges' agreement that the pictured individuals were low, medium, or high in physical attractiveness. Subjects' ratings pertained to various person-This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grants BNS-8616149 to Richard EX Ashmore and Frances K. Del Boca, Co-Principal Investigators, and BNS-S605256 to Alice H. Eagl>; Principal Investigator. A preliminary report of this research was reported at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, June 1989. A table showing the effect sizes and study characteristics for each study included in the meta-analysis is available from Alice H. Eagly or Richard EX Ashmore. We thank Thomas Alley, Ellen Berscheid, Linda Jackson, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on a draft of the article.

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The Attractive Executive: Effects of Sex of Business Associates on Attributions of Competence and Social Skills

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

You Think; Therefore I Am: Gender Schemas and Context in Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court, 1979–2016

You Think; Therefore I Am: Gender Schemas and Context in Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court, 1979–2016

Effects of Clothing Attractiveness on Perceptions

What is beautiful is good, but…: A meta-analytic review of research on the physical attractiveness stereotype.

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