Stereotypic role assignments trigger gender-based causal attributions especially for solo members

Evidence

The most relevant to the present discussion was the endorsement for a categorical cause (i.e., “because he or she was a man or woman”). Consistent with our prediction, we found that a stereotypic role assignment was attributed to the target’s gender, especially when the target was in the salient solo status (Figure 2.1a). As for the scenario of a drama club, the stereotypicality × gender ratio × target’s gender interaction was statistically significant (p < .05). When the role assignment was gender stereotypical (i.e., a male director and a female costume designer), the causal explanation referring to gender was most likely in the solo status condition. However, the likelihood of such categorical attribution was constantly low when the assignments were counterstereotypic. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 118

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the solo-status/visibility research tradition (Kanter’s tokenism) and implicit bias literature.