The Influence Of Power On Occupation Gender Stereotype

Stereotype is one kind of stable viewpoint toward a certain social group in a simplysummarized way, which is generally associated with some characteristics and behaviors.Recently, occupation-gender stereotype, as an important research areas of social stereotypehas arise many intriguing studies. People with high power often occupy some importantposition in the society, and their decision had greater impact on the society andorganization. So it was important and meaningful to understand the feature ofoccupational-gender stereotype of high power and explore the corresponding interventionstrategies.Firstly, we use the Implicit Association Test to test whether there were differencesbetween high and low power people on the occupational gender stereotype. Then we talkedabout the intervention effects of individual information on occupational gender stereotypefor different powers. Finally, we explore the effectiveness of consciousness inhibition onreducing the stereotype.The purpose of the experiment1is to explore whether there was implicit occupationalgender stereotypes and any difference between high and low power people with ImplicitAssociation Test. After been put into two groups via Sense of Power scale, participantswere asked to finish the IAT test. Indicator of stereotype is the different value betweendifferent reaction time in the compatible and incompatible tasks. The results show thatpeople with high power has a higher occupational gender stereotypes when compared withthose of low power.The purpose of the experiment2is to explore the interventions effectiveness of thetarget individual information on occupational gender stereotypes. In the experiment, thestudents were asked to identify the occupation of the individual presenting in thephotographs. The results showed that people high power always made their decision basedon the gender, which demonstrating a higher applied of the stereotype. However people with low power would take individual information into account and made their decisionbased on personality traits, which demonstrating a lower applied of the stereotypeThe purpose of the experiment3is to explore whether the inhibition strategy canreduce the stereotype effectively. In the experiment, the participants were presented with apicture of a female managers, and their task was describing the typical day in life. Then theparticipants were asked to read a material and rank the stereotype. The results show thatalthough the inhibition can suppressed the stereotype temporarily, there will be a reboundstereotypes after the release of inhibition.In short, power would trigger higher implicit occupational gender stereotypes. Peoplewith high power always made their decision based on the gender when identify theoccupation of the individual presenting in the photographs, which demonstrating a higherapplied of the stereotype. For high power people although the inhibition can suppressed thestereotype temporarily, there will be a rebound stereotypes after the release of inhibition.