Accuracy
and Bias in Stereotypes About the
Social and Political Attitudes of Women and Men
Alice
H. Eagly, Amanda Diekman, and Patrick Kulesa
Abstract
In three experiments that examined the accuracy of
gender stereotypes about attitudes, male and female participants
estimated the attitudes of men or women on items that had been administered
in the General Social Survey to assess attitudes on social and political
issues. Comparing participants' estimates of these attitudes to
the criterion attitudes of male and female survey respondents revealed
generally high stereotypic accuracy that was greater for estimating
the attitudes of women than men. Estimates of men's attitudes reflected
a self-interest bias whereby participants somewhat overestimated
men's support for their own interests and greatly overestimated
men's opposition to women's interests.
Alice H. Eagly, Department
of Psychology, Northwestern University
Amanda Diekman, Doctoral student, Department of
Psychology, Northwestern University
Patrick Kulesa, Doctoral student, Department of
Psychology, Northwestern University
This working paper has been published in the
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
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