Accuracy of attitude stereotypes: The case of inferences based on gender.

Abstract

Studies were undertaken to assess the accuracy of people's estimates of the attitudes of men and women. In the first study, we assessed attitudes of male and female university students on a broad range of social and political issues. In the second, we asked new participants to estimate the attitudes of typical males and females on the same statements. These estimates were used to select a set of stereotypic male statements and a set of stereotypic female statements. In the third study, participants estimated the attitudes of male and female students on the two sets of statements. The results of the first two studies indicated that both men and women expected larger gender differences in attitudes than actually exist. In the third study, we confirmed this result and found that people were least accurate in their estimates of the attitudes of men. Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis that in-group stereotypes would be more accurate than out-group stereotypes. Men were more accurate than women in estimating the attitudes of men but men and women were equally accurate in estimating the attitudes of women. The picture of stereotype accuracy for gender-based judgments of attitudes that emerges from our research is more complicated than earlier research would suggest.

A judgement analysis of social perceptions of attitudes and ability

“…The age and gender influences are consistent with previous research on judgements about others' attitudes (see Grant et al, 1997Grant et al, , 2001. The influence of age may reflect the prevailing cultural view that older people are more committed to tradition and more resistant to change (e.g., Bassili & Reil, 1981;Truett, 1993).…”

“…For example, women and young people are thought to be more liberal (Grant, Button, Ross, & Hannah, 1997;Grant, Ross, Button, Hannah, & Hoskins, 2001) but gender and age are not so clearly related to judgements of intelligence. How other clearly visible characteristics such as ethnicity, degree of smiling, and cultural signifiers (e.g., traditional dress, facial markings, etc.…”

Attitudes and Stereotypes About Attitudes Across the Lifespan

“…Riemann et al (1993) found that women scored lower than men on a factor they labeled liberalism and affirmation of technological progress but that men and women scored about equally on a general conservatism factor. Similarly, Grant et al (1997) found that men agreed more than did women with statements endorsing pornography, prostitution, casual sex, and police detention of potentially violent offenders. However, women were more likely than were men to endorse feminist positions and to take a tolerant view of homosexuality.…”

“…The studies, however, are somewhat limited in that both used only college-age participants and both ignored the possibility that target gender might affect attributions either directly (Grant et al, 1997) or in interaction with target age (Kite, Deaux, & Miele, 1991). In the research reported here, the researchers attempted to extend the scope of previous studies by asking men and women, selected from the general population and representing a wide age range, to indicate their own attitudes (Study 1) or to estimate the attitudes of a young, middle-aged, or old man or woman (Study 2).…”

“…Twenty attitude statements were selected (see Table 1) from those the researchers had used in previous studies (Button et al, 1993;Grant, Hannah, Ross, & Button, 1995;Grant et al, 1997;Ross, 1997). Three criteria were used in selecting the items: each had to deal with a different social issue; each had to be one that participants in an earlier study (Grant, Button, Hannah, & Ross, 1994) had identified as clearly conservative or liberal; and finally, each item had to be suitable for a short telephone interview (i.e., easy to understand, not too personal, etc.).…”