Stereotypes and Perecptions of Gender

Running head: STEREOTYPES AND PERCEPTIONS OF GENDER

Stereotypes and Perceptions of Gender

Do Stereotypes Affect Perceptions?

I intend to demonstrate that different stereotypes of any gender affect people's perceptions of those genders. The stereotype can be a specific sex role as in women who shop or men who use power tools; it can also be an emotion or a personality trait such as happy or easily angered. These stereotypes that were probably created long ago still affect people's perceptions of men and women, especially in the lab setting.

Angry Men and Happy Women

In the journal article The Confounded Nature of Angry Men and Happy Women, Becker, Kenrick, Neuberg, Blackwell, and Smith founded a study in which participants were to assert the gender of a gender-non-specific cartoon face. According to the article, every different species has the inherent ability to be able to recognize their own kind and in addition identify gender, age, and mating possibilities. The researchers also point out the fact that in our species males and females pose different threats and offer different things. For example, males are generally more aggressive and more likely to hurt another person. This, the researchers believe, could be enough for someone to declare that angry facial expressions belong to males. On the flip side, females are generally regarded as nonviolent and nurturing, which would likely cause one to find the happier faces to be more feminine (Becker, Kenrick, Neuberg, Blackwell, & Smith, 2007). An occurrence such as this can be explained in psychological terms as well.

Evaluative Priming Technique