The Effects of Gender Neuroessentialism on Transprejudice: An Experimental Study

Ching, Boby Ho-Hong; Xu, Jason Teng

doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0786-3

Cited by 53 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Although this may seem unsurprising, it contrasts with related work finding that essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation predict more positive attitudes towards lesbian and gay people (Roberts et al, 2017). One possible explanation is that transgender people may challenge rigid gender conceptions differently than lesbian or gay people (Ching & Xu, 2018). However, it is also possible that "gender essentialism"like essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation -could be construed in a manner that would predict more favorable attitudes towards transgender people.…”

Section: Transgender Attitudes and Gender Essentialismcontrasting

confidence: 68%

Implicit Transgender Attitudes Independently Predict Beliefs About Gender and Transgender People

Axt

Conway

Westgate

et al. 2020

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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Surprisingly little is known about transgender attitudes, partly due to a need for improved measures of beliefs about transgender people. Four studies introduce a novel Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing implicit attitudes toward transgender people. Study 1 ( N = 294) found significant implicit and explicit preferences for cisgender over transgender people, both of which correlated with transphobia and transgender-related policy support. Study 2 ( N = 1,094) found that implicit transgender attitudes predicted similar outcomes among participants reporting no explicit preference for cisgender versus transgender people. Across Study 3a ( N = 5,647) and Study 3b ( N = 2,276), implicit transgender attitudes predicted multiple outcomes, including gender essentialism, contact with transgender people, and support for transgender-related policies, over and above explicit attitudes. This work introduces a reliable means of measuring implicit transgender attitudes and illustrates how these attitudes independently predict meaningful beliefs and experiences.

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Section: Transgender Attitudes and Gender Essentialismcontrasting

confidence: 68%

Implicit Transgender Attitudes Independently Predict Beliefs About Gender and Transgender People

Axt

Conway

Westgate

et al. 2020

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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“…These effects hold even when the research presented is not about the stereotype measured (e.g. women and STEM)(Brescoll and LaFrance 2004;Ching and Xu 2018;Coleman and Hong 2008;Donovan et al 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Paradigms of Sex Research and Women in STEM

Lockhart¹

2020

Preprint

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Scientists’ identities and social locations influence their work, but the content of scientific work can also influence scientists. Theory from feminist science studies, autoethnographic accounts, interviews, and experiments indicate that the substance of scientific research can have profound effects on how scientists are treated by colleagues and their sense of belonging in science. I bring together this disparate literature under the framework of professional cultures and show population-level trends supporting it. Drawing on the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Web of Science, I use computational social science tools to argue that the way scientists write about sex in their research influences the future gender ratio of PhDs awarded across 53 subfields of the life sciences over a span of 47 years. Specifically, I show that a critical paradigm of “feminist biology” that seeks to de-essentialize sex and gender corresponds to increases in women’s graduation rates, while “sex difference” research—sometimes called “neurosexism” because of its emphasis on essential, categorical differences—has negative effects on women’s graduation rates in most fields.

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“…The higher a person scores on neurogenetic essentialism scales, the greater the gender bias they exhibit. Experimental activation of neurogenetic essentialism can increase transgender prejudice (Ching & Xu, ) and gender stereotyping (Brescoll & LaFrance, ). When men who score high on sexism scales are led to believe that scientific findings support biological explanations of gender difference (vs. that science still debates the biological basis of gender difference) they tend to (a) be more likely to endorse neurogenetic essentialism; (b) view the treatment of men and women in society as fair; (c) support the social dominance of men in society; and (d) support gender discriminatory practices (Morton, Postmes, Haslam, & Hornsey, ).…”

Section: (De)constructing Gender Concepts Through School Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To further illustrate this point, consider the texts used in prior experiments. These studies have asked participants to read about the genetic causes of gender differences in the ability to identify plants (Brescoll & LaFrance, ) or behavioral, personality, and cognitive differences between genders (Ching & Xu, ; Coleman & Hong, ; Morton et al, ). Although psychology undergraduates may encounter genetic explanations for psychological differences between genders, biology students in the K‐12 pipeline do not.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered genetics: How reading about the genetic basis of sex differences in biology textbooks could affect beliefs associated with science gender disparities

et al. 2019

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The belief that men and women differ in science ability because of genetics contributes to gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in complex ways. In this field experiment, we explored how the content of the genetics curriculum affected beliefs about science ability through its impact on a social-cognitive bias known as neurogenetic essentialism. Students (n = 460, 8th-10th grade) were randomized to read a genetics text that (a) explained plant sex differences, (b) explained human sex differences, or (c) refuted neurogenetic essentialism. After reading, students in the two genetics of sex conditions had significantly greater belief in neurogenetic essentialism and the innate basis of science ability compared with students who read the text that refuted neurogenetic essentialism. Structural equation modeling (SEM) of the experimental data demonstrated that the effect of the readings on the belief that science ability is innate was mediated by neurogenetic essentialism and this indirect effect was significant for girls but not boys. In turn, the belief that science ability is innate predicted lower future interest in STEM for girls, but not for boys. These findings suggest that learning about human genetic difference is not a socially neutral endeavor. Implications for mitigating gender disparities in STEM are discussed.

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The Effects of Gender Neuroessentialism on Transprejudice: An Experimental Study

Cited by 53 publications

References 63 publications

Implicit Transgender Attitudes Independently Predict Beliefs About Gender and Transgender People

Implicit Transgender Attitudes Independently Predict Beliefs About Gender and Transgender People

Paradigms of Sex Research and Women in STEM

Gendered genetics: How reading about the genetic basis of sex differences in biology textbooks could affect beliefs associated with science gender disparities

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