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Townsend CH, Mishra S, Kray LJ. Not All Powerful People Are Created Equal: An Examination of Gender and Pathways to Social Hierarchy Through the Lens of Social Cognition. Psychol Sci 2024; 35:962-975. [PMID: 39110883 DOI: 10.1177/09567976241260251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Across four studies (N = 816 U.S. adults), we uncovered a gender stereotype about dual pathways to social hierarchy: Men were associated with power, and women were associated with status. We detected this pattern both explicitly and implicitly in perceptions of individuals drawn from Forbes magazine's powerful people lists in undergraduate and online samples. We examined social-cognitive implications, including prominent people's degree of recognition by individuals and society, and the formation of men's and women's self-concepts. We found that power (status) ratings predicted greater recognition of men (women) and lesser recognition of women (men). In terms of the self-concept, we found that women internalized the stereotype associating women with status more than power implicitly and explicitly. Although men explicitly reported having less status and more power than women, men implicitly associated the self with status as much as power. No gender differences emerged in the desires for power and status.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Laura J Kray
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
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Choi AL, Anderson C. Be careful what you wish for: Individuals perceived to desire status are afforded less status. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0304727. [PMID: 38917160 PMCID: PMC11198812 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
In multiple studies, we found that people who are viewed as possessing a stronger desire for status are, ironically, afforded lower status by others. Coworkers who were viewed as having a higher (versus lower) desire for status (Study 1a and 1b), and individuals who were described as having a higher desire for status (versus a lower desire for status or no information), were afforded lower status (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). Mediation analyses and an experimental manipulation of the mediator (Study 3a and 3b) suggested that the observed negative effect of desire for status on status was mediated primarily by perceptions of low prosociality. These findings have important implications for status organizing processes in groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew L. Choi
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Cameron Anderson
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
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Weaving M, Alshaabi T, Arnold MV, Blake K, Danforth CM, Dodds PS, Haslam N, Fine C. Twitter misogyny associated with Hillary Clinton increased throughout the 2016 U.S. election campaign. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5266. [PMID: 37002316 PMCID: PMC10066361 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31620-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Online misogyny has become a fixture in female politicians' lives. Backlash theory suggests that it may represent a threat response prompted by female politicians' counterstereotypical, power-seeking behaviors. We investigated this hypothesis by analyzing Twitter references to Hillary Clinton before, during, and after her presidential campaign. We collected a corpus of over 9 million tweets from 2014 to 2018 that referred to Hillary Clinton, and employed an interrupted time series analysis on the relative frequency of misogynistic language within the corpus. Prior to 2015, the level of misogyny associated with Clinton decreased over time, but this trend reversed when she announced her presidential campaign. During the campaign, misogyny steadily increased and only plateaued after the election, when the threat of her electoral success had subsided. These findings are consistent with the notion that online misogyny towards female political nominees is a form of backlash prompted by their ambition for power in the political arena.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morgan Weaving
- School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
| | | | - Michael V Arnold
- Computational Story Lab, Vermont Complex Systems Center, MassMutual Center of Excellence for Complex Systems and Data Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Khandis Blake
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Christopher M Danforth
- Computational Story Lab, Vermont Complex Systems Center, MassMutual Center of Excellence for Complex Systems and Data Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Peter S Dodds
- Computational Story Lab, Vermont Complex Systems Center, MassMutual Center of Excellence for Complex Systems and Data Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Nick Haslam
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Cordelia Fine
- School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
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Kennedy JA, Kray LJ. Gender similarities and differences in dishonesty. Curr Opin Psychol 2022; 48:101461. [PMID: 36116425 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2022] [Revised: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
We review the evidence linking gender to dishonesty and conclude that men are often more dishonest than women, especially in competitive settings where lies advance self-interest. However, gender differences in dishonesty are often small and mutable across situations. We propose that attending to self-regulatory constructs such as moral identity might help researchers move beyond the evolutionary-cultural debates over the origin of gender differences toward identifying factors that promote honesty from both genders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica A Kennedy
- Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
| | - Laura J Kray
- University of California, Haas School of Business, Berkeley, CA 94720-1900, USA
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