Heymans Colloquium - dr. S. de Lemus

LECTURER
Soledad de Lemus
(Universidad de Granada, Spain)

TITLE
Implicit resistance to sexist roles relations: The effects of  stereotype exposure on ingroup bias and goals activation

DATE & TIME
Tuesday, 4 December 2012, 15.30–16.45 hrs

LOCATION
B.0136, (Gadourekzaal), Bouman Building

ABSTRACT
Subordinate groups might sometimes accept or even legitimize their situation, but also contest stereotypes and use ingroup bias as a way of resisting their disadvantage.
In four studies we tested for implicit resistance to sexist role relations from the perspective of women. In Study 1 we measured implicit ingroup bias when women and men
appear as primes in salient role-related contexts in an evaluative priming task. In Study 2, we used an associative procedure to expose two groups of participants to
stereotypical vs. counter-stereotypical gender-role associations, and measured reactions in an evaluative priming task. Results indicate that women react to sexist role
relations at the implicit level showing evaluative resistance (i.e., favouring their ingroup over the outgroup) when they have been exposed to stereotypical roles. Further, the
implicit activation of resistance vs. acceptance goals was measured using Lexical Decision Task. Results showed that participants activated resistance more than to
acceptance words after the stereotypical training. In Study 3, these effects of stereotype exposure on the activation of goals were moderated by benevolent sexism (BS).
Finally, in Study 4 we replicated the evaluative resistance effect (i.e., activation of ingroup bias) only when roles are primed and this effect was also predicted by participants’
feminist and gender identification. Further, exposing participants to stereotypes promoted negative emotions in women as well as increased persistence on a subsequent
stereotype-relevant task. Overall, these results supported our motivated resistance hypothesis. The results are discussed in terms of the motivational influence of perceived
discrimination in intergroup relations.



For more information you may contact dr K. (Kai) Epstude, email address k.epstude rug.nl