Exploring the Existence And Influence of Gender Stereotyping on behaviour and decision-making through a Vignette Study.
Exploring the Existence
And Influence of Gender Stereotyping on behaviour and decision-making
through a Vignette Study.
Abstract.
Knowledge is organised in the brain in schemas, which aids fast processing of information, but can also lead to stereotyping and distortions of new information, as the brain tries to categorise new information. To explore these stereotypes (specifically gender) and how they affect behaviour, participants were presented with a short paragraph describing either a male or female giving directions, and asked how much further they would drive. The results showed that participants would drive further when a female had directed them. This suggests that gender stereotypes do exist and that they are a strong subconscious influence on our behaviour.
Method
Design.
The experiment was a between-participants design, as a within-design would have allowed the participants to see the difference in the conditions and therefore work out the point of the experiment. The Independent Variable (IV) was the sex of the direction-giver in the vignette, so half of participants answered condition 1 where the direction-giver was female, and the other half answered condition 2 where the direction-giver was male. The Dependent Variable (DV) was the number of miles the participant would continue to drive after reading the vignette, if they were the driver. Participants were asked to give an exact number of miles they would continue, which was recorded in tabular form. The data collected was therefore continuous. The experimental hypothesis used was that participants would drive further if the direction-giver was female than if the direction-giver was male. This hypothesis was one-tailed. The null hypothesis was that the participants would not drive further if the direction-giver was female rather than male.
It was made sure that the participants had no prior knowledge of the aim of the experiment or what it entailed. They were all briefed in the same way and the only difference between the conditions was the DV. Participants conferred with no-one. Participants were distributed equally between conditions according to sex, so that the sex of the participant would not skew the results.
Participants.
28 people took part in the experiment. 14 of these participants' results were from previous research. 14 were recruited through identical emails asking them to take part in a psychological experiment. They had no knowledge of the aim of the experiment and no knowledge of this type of experiment. No incentives were offered by the researcher. The age range of participants was 18-65. 14 participants were male, and 14 were female. No responses were excluded from the report. Subjects were allocated randomly to conditions, ensuring equal numbers of men and women in each condition. Age was varied so difficult to distribute evenly, but it was attempted to distribute this as evenly as possible. It was decided that even distribution of sex of participant was more important than even distribution of the age, due to the nature of the process being investigated.
Materials/Apparatus.
A preceding email was sent, asking people to participate in the experiment. Then 2 documents were written, one for each condition. Each had an identical introduction to the vignette and then the actual vignette following this. This consisted of a brief account of a car journey to find a hotel. The driver stops to ask directions from either a male or female (the DV). At the end of each the question of how many miles one would continue was posed to the participant on the same document (see appendices). The material was replicated in part from ...
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Materials/Apparatus.
A preceding email was sent, asking people to participate in the experiment. Then 2 documents were written, one for each condition. Each had an identical introduction to the vignette and then the actual vignette following this. This consisted of a brief account of a car journey to find a hotel. The driver stops to ask directions from either a male or female (the DV). At the end of each the question of how many miles one would continue was posed to the participant on the same document (see appendices). The material was replicated in part from that provided to the researcher, which had been used for the participants in the previous research, but a few minimal changes were made to allow the experiment to be done by email (see appendices for differences).
Procedure.
Participants were sent an email before the actual experiment, asking if they would participate. They were told that they would be debriefed after I had received their answers. Then in an email including the experiment, they were told they were about to read a short story, and to read it carefully (see appendices for instructions given). They were asked to do this in a quiet atmosphere so that they could concentrate fully. They were then told that at the end they would have to answer a question. They were asked to continue to read the story if they understood what was required. The participants all took part individually, and all received the same instructions regardless of the condition. Stimuli were presented to 14 of the participants on a computer screen, and were read out loud to the other 14 participants in the data given to the researcher. After reading the vignette (see appendices for vignettes for condition 1 and 2) the participants were asked how many miles they would continue to travel before taking another course of action. They were asked to be as precise as possible, giving an exact number of miles rather than a range. The time allowed was open-ended. The 14 participants that the researcher used replied via email with their answers, and all the data was recorded in a table alongside the previous data given to the researcher.
After all the answers had been received the participants were told what the aim of the experiment was. They were given a brief overview of schemas and the type of person schema being tested. They were told what the other condition was and also what my results were. They were told to ask any questions regarding the experiment they wanted, and to make any criticisms if they wanted to.
Results
To restate, the experimental hypothesis was that participants would drive further if the direction-giver was female than if the direction-giver was male. This hypothesis was one-tailed.
The data collected and analysed was the number of miles the participant would drive. This was entered as continuous data i.e. no calculations were performed on it before it was analysed.
Mean number of miles participant would drive.
Standard Deviation.
Female giving directions.
7.64
4.814
Male giving directions.
4.50
3.632
The difference between the means is 3.14 miles, with participants willing to drive further on average when a woman is giving directions. Standard deviation shows that data is more closely clustered around the mean with the man as direction-giver (3.362) than with a woman (4.814).
The inferential test used to analyse the data was an independent samples t-test. The results of this test were
t(28) = 1.950; p< .05 (p = 0.031)
(See appendices).
This result is statistically significant. On this basis the null hypothesis, that the participants would not drive further if the direction-giver was female rather than male, can be rejected, as the result is significant beyond the 5% level.
Discussion
The result of the experiment showed that participants were theoretically willing to drive further after a woman had given them directions than after a man had given directions. This suggests that there was a cognitive process involved that the participants may not have been aware of as the participants were more likely to trust the woman's directions than the man's. This seems to uphold the existence and influence of gender stereotyping. When debriefed all the participants said they had not been conscious of the sex of the direction-giver and that it would not make a difference to their decision anyway. This correlates with the theory that schemas have an effect on the way we judge people and situations.
The result contradicts the stereotype that men are thought to have better spatial-awareness and map-reading abilities than women, but there are other schemas that could have been involved. The schema pictured in people's minds when reading the vignette condition 2 may have been that of a young man from the outskirts of a city, wandering the streets, dressed in a way that instinctively made them wary (e.g. a 'skinhead' stereotype). Those reading condition 1 may have picked up on the schema of a mum with her children walking down the road, and therefore trusted this stereotype of a trustworthy maternal-figure more. It is difficult to limit the image conjured in the 'mind's eye' in this experiment. Describing the person in detail would have drawn attention to the purpose of the experiment and therefore have potentially affected the results. Keeping it to a simple 'man' or 'woman' prevented this but consequently the type of person in the schema was open-ended. There is therefore the possibility that instead of only one schema being tested, other schemas came into play. Person, role, and event schemas may have all played a part in the decision on how far to drive.
Splitting the results into 2 separate groups, those taken by the researcher and those provided to the researcher, there is a marked difference (see separate t-tests in appendices). Although it is less reliable as it has half the sample size than the overall result, it can be clearly seen that the results taken by the researcher are significant beyond the 1% level (and the data provided to the researcher shows no significance at all). This demonstrates that there may be differences in the way data was taken that influenced the result. All data collected personally by the researcher was done via email and so was read by the participants instead of read to them. This may have created less interference in the amount of information being processed as it was visual rather than auditory and visual (even if the experiment was read to the first participants they would still have been processing visual information). It was read by all participants in a quiet atmosphere, so there was little auditory information being received. It may be useful to do further research along these lines. It would also be interesting to repeat the experiment with a male rather than female researcher and see if this makes a difference to results, as even though it was via email the participants were still aware of the sex of the researcher and it is possible this contributed to the difference in results. Ecological validity of the experiment must also be taken into account as it is hard to replicate true reactions in laboratory conditions.
References
Pike G. (2002), DSE212 'Exploring Psychology', Methods Booklet 3, 'Experimental Project', Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Miell, D., Phoenix, A. and Thomas, K (eds)(2002), DSE212 'Exploring Psychology', Mapping Psychology 1, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Miell, D., Phoenix, A. and Thomas, K (eds)(2002), DSE212 'Exploring Psychology', Mapping Psychology 2, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
APPENDICES
Descriptives
Condition participant was exposed to
Statistic
Std. Error
Number of miles participant would drive
Female giving directions
Mean
7.64
.286
95% Confidence Interval for Mean
Lower Bound
4.86
Upper Bound
0.42
5% Trimmed Mean
7.27
Median
5.50
Variance
23.170
Std. Deviation
4.814
Minimum
2
Maximum
20
Range
8
Interquartile Range
5.00
Skewness
.598
.597
Kurtosis
2.485
.154
Male giving directions
Mean
4.50
.971
95% Confidence Interval for Mean
Lower Bound
2.40
Upper Bound
6.60
5% Trimmed Mean
4.33
Median
3.00
Variance
3.192
Std. Deviation
3.632
Minimum
0
Maximum
2
Range
2
Interquartile Range
5.50
Skewness
.809
.597
Kurtosis
-.271
.154
Email sent to recruit participants.
Hi everyone. I have a big favour to ask. I have some experiments to do for my psychology, one of which involves lots of participants. If you are willing to participate then please let me know by email ASAP, and I will send a short email containing the experiment. Please read the experiment with minimal disturbances (i.e. a quiet room!) and make sure you have a couple of minutes to concentrate on it before reading it. After I have all the answers back I will explain what the experiment was about.
Thanks,
Clare.
Condition 1. Email sent to participants.
In a moment you will read a short story, which I would like you to read carefully. At the end of the story I am going to ask you a question.
When you are clear about what is required, please continue.
.......
A personnel officer was driving to a conference being held in a hotel on the outskirts of an unfamiliar, large city. Although they had remembered to keep the conference schedule and brochure on the passenger seat, the map showing the location of the hotel was missing. After driving around the city for twenty minutes, and getting lost in the one-way systems, the driver pulled up and tried to phone the hotel. Unfortunately there was no phone signal. After another 10 minutes of trying to find the hotel, the driver pulled over and asked a passerby for directions. This woman knew the hotel and said that it could be reached by turning left at the next junction, driving for half a mile and then taking the second right at the next roundabout. She assured the driver that the hotel was definitely along this road, but other than saying it was 'a few miles', could not be more specific about the distance. The driver thanked the woman and followed the directions, but after travelling for five miles along the indicated road, there was still no sign of the hotel.
If you were the driver, for how many miles would you continue to drive along the road before taking another course of action?
Please tell me your answer and be as precise as possible by giving a single number of miles rather than a range.
Condition 2. Email sent to participants.
In a moment you will read a short story, which I would like you to read carefully. At the end of the story I am going to ask you a question.
When you are clear about what is required, please continue.
.......
A personnel officer was driving to a conference being held in a hotel on the outskirts of an unfamiliar, large city. Although they had remembered to keep the conference schedule and brochure on the passenger seat, the map showing the location of the hotel was missing. After driving around the city for twenty minutes, and getting lost in the one-way systems, the driver pulled up and tried to phone the hotel. Unfortunately there was no phone signal. After another 10 minutes of trying to find the hotel, the driver pulled over and asked a passerby for directions. This man knew the hotel and said that it could be reached by turning left at the next junction, driving for half a mile and then taking the second right at the next roundabout. He assured the driver that the hotel was definitely along this road, but other than saying it was 'a few miles', could not be more specific about the distance. The driver thanked the man and followed the directions, but after travelling for five miles along the indicated road, there was still no sign of the hotel.
If you were the driver, for how many miles would you continue to drive along the road before taking another course of action?
Please tell me your answer and be as precise as possible by giving a single number of miles rather than a range.
Clare Walker DSE212 TMA03 Experiment 2B Vignette Study.
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