Running head: SUMMARY STEREOTYPING/DISCRIMINATION

Summary Article #1 - (Stereotyping and Discrimination):

Reversing Implicit Gender Stereotype Activation as a Function of Exposure to Traditional
Gender Roles
Michelle Mendez
Florida International University

SUMMARY STEREOTYPING/DISCRIMINATION

Summary Article #1 - (Stereotyping and Discrimination)

Purpose
A study by de Lemus, Spears, Bukowski, Moya, and Lupiez (2013) examined the
impact when presenting traditional gender roles on the provocation of gender stereotyping. The
purpose of the current experiment is to analyze if a womens response to extensive gender
stereotypes that occurs without questioning are impacted by counter stereotypical roles
consistent with gender stereotype incitement, by using a word categorization task with Spanish
women. The researchers were interested in exploring the reaction caused by traditional gender
roles and the effect of the stereotyping process. De Lemus, et al., (2013) depicted how Spanish
women reacted when exposed to stereotypical or counter stereotypical gender roles using
feminine communal/warmth and masculine agentic/competence stereotypical trait words in a
categorization tasks to measure their automatic responses. Previous research had already shown
that presenting counter stereotypical reality or imaginary instances could reduce the initiation of
automatic gender stereotypes. De Lemus, et al., (2013) hypothesized that warmth/communion
related traits are identified quicker than competence/agency related traits, supporting modern
examples of primacy in general perception. De Lemus, et al., (2013) also hypothesized that
women in the stereotype exposure condition will classify agency-related words quicker if primed
with female faces (vs. male), and communion-related words faster when primed with male faces
(vs. female). And finally, de Lemus, et al., (2013) hypothesized that the stereotype reversal effect
is controlled by attitudes toward gender equality policies.
Participants and Methods

SUMMARY STEREOTYPING/DISCRIMINATION

The current study included eighty-five first year female students who volunteered to
participate in the study. These students were from the University of Granada and participated in
exchange for course credit. Unfortunately, the age range for the participants was not provided.
Participants took part in a two-part study that contained an exposure phase and test phase.
For the first part, participants were asked to categorize the target person appearing in the image
as a man or a woman only when the person appeared indoors (i.e., either in a kitchen or an
office) (de Lemus, et al., 2013). They were told to not responses when he or she appeared
outdoors (i.e., neutral context) (de Lemus, et al., 2013). For the second part, participants were
asked to complete a categorization task where they had to classify a target word as positive or
negative as fast as possible while trying not to make any mistakes (de Lemus, et al., 2013). Male
and female faces were presented as primes and agency/competence and communion/warmth
words as targets (de Lemus, et al., 2013). The factors that were being manipulated were exposure
(female in kitchen and male in office vs. female in office and male in kitchen), gender target
(gender of prime in phase two of the experiment), dimension (content of trait words), and
valence (valence of trait words) (de Lemus, et al., 2013). The dependent factors were the
responses provided by participants. As a cover story, participants were told they would be
partaking in an experiment analyzing the decision-making process and the social stimuli that
affect this mechanism (de Lemus, et al., 2013).
Results
The results for only 83 females were included because two participants answered less
then 80% of the questions. For the first phase, the results showed a significant interaction of
Exposure Gender target Role Context, F(1, 81) = 83.11, p < .0001, 2 = .51 (de Lemus, et al.,
2013). For the second phase, there was a main effect of dimension, F(1, 81) = 111.14, p < .001,

SUMMARY STEREOTYPING/DISCRIMINATION

2 = .58, indicating that warmth/communion related traits were categorized faster than
competence/agency related trait (de Lemus, et al., 2013). The results show an overall Gender
target Dimension interaction, F(1, 81) = 9.55, p = .003, 2 = .11(de Lemus, et al., 2013).
Conclusion/Discussion
The results from the first phase indicated that female cues provide results to
agency/competence traits while male cues provide responses to communion/warmth traits (de
Lemus, et al., 2013). For phase two, results indicated difference in gender and context
association. When female participants were exposed to stereotypical roles, they switched the
classical gender stereotype activation pattern. The reversal pattern supported the hypothesis
regarding the resistance of stabilization of traditional roles. The results suggest a form of
contesting gender stereotypes by women threatened with traditional social role distributions.
The results support findings from experiments conducted throughout 1990-2009 that
motivational processes occur unconsciously. Future studies should clearly identify whether the
reversal effect occurs because of role identity and include more in depth analysis with larger
groups.

Reference:
de Lemus, S., Spears, R., Bukowski, M., Moya, M., & Lupiez, J. (2013). Reversing implicit
gender stereotype activation as a function of exposure to traditional gender roles. Social
Psychology, 44(2), 109-116. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000140