Economic Inequality Shapes Gender Stereotypes

Economic inequality is a main issue in current societies and it affects people’s psychological processes. In this research, we propose that perceived economic inequality might affect how people perceive men and women. In two experiments carried out in Spain (N = 170) and Mexico (N = 215), we tested...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Willis, Guillermo B., Quiroga Garza, Angélica, Moya, Miguel, Moreno Bella, Eva
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repositorio:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/12728
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/12728
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:economic inequality
agency and communion
gender stereotypes
person perception
social perception
Descripción
Sumario:Economic inequality is a main issue in current societies and it affects people’s psychological processes. In this research, we propose that perceived economic inequality might affect how people perceive men and women. In two experiments carried out in Spain (N = 170) and Mexico (N = 215), we tested whether high (vs. low) economic inequality leads to changes in the perceived agency and communion of both men and women. Our findings suggest that when economic inequality is high (vs. low), the communal content in social perceptions of both men and women decreases. Specifically, under high (vs. low) inequality, the difference in agency and communion ascribed to a man becomes greater (i.e., men are perceived as even more agentic than communal), whereas this difference becomes smaller for women (i.e., women are still perceived as more communal than agentic, but this difference is smaller). We discuss these findings’ implications regarding the psychosocial effects of economic inequality.