Contesting gender stereotypes stimulates generalized fairness in the selection of leaders

Abstract

Exposure to counter-stereotypic gender role models (e.g., a woman engineer) has been shown to successfully reduce the application of biased gender stereotypes. We tested the hypothesis that such efforts may more generally lessen the application of stereotypic knowledge in other (non-gendered) domains. Specifically, based on the notion that counter-stereotypes can stimulate a lesser reliance on heuristic thinking, we predicted that contesting gender stereotypes would eliminate a more general group prototypicality bias in the selection of leaders. Three studies supported this hypothesis. After exposing participants to a counter-stereotypic gender role model, group prototypicality no longer predicted leadership evaluation and selection. We discuss the implications of these findings for groups and organizations seeking to capitalize on the benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.05.001
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: © 2014, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords: counter-stereotypes,gender role model,group prototypicality,leadership,Business and International Management,Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management,Applied Psychology,Sociology and Political Science
Publication ISSN: 1873-3409
Last Modified: 05 Jan 2024 08:39
Date Deposited: 21 Dec 2015 11:25
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2014-10
Published Online Date: 2014-06-08
Authors: Leicht, Carola
Randsley de Moura, Georgina
Crisp, Richard J.

Export / Share Citation


Statistics

Additional statistics for this record