They all look alike, but so do we … sometimes: Perceptions of in-group and out-group...

They all look alike, but so do we … sometimes: Perceptions of in-group and out-group homogeneity as a function of sex and context

Abstract

The impact of gender on perceptions of group homogeneity was assessed using a memory paradigm. In the main experimental conditions, male and female subjects were presented with 12 pairs of photographs and gendered silhouettes. The photographs portrayed a series of environments (e.g. a kitchen) in public settings (e.g. a restaurant) and in domestic ones (e.g. at home). The connection of settings and gender of silhouettes varied across subjects. In control conditions, all silhouettes were of the same sex or were geometrical forms (triangles and squares). The subjects memorized the pairs of photographs and targets, and then had to reconstruct them. The experiment addressed three hypotheses. The categorization effect: within-category errors would exceed between-category errors, especially when gender was used as a categorization criterion. The out-group homogeneity effect: within-category errors concerning the out-group would be greater than those concerning the in-group. The social status effect: men would display more out-group homogeneity than women. Results provided evidence for the categorization and the out-group homogeneity hypotheses. They also supported to some extent the social status hypothesis. Different styles of processing of information were suggested by men's and women's performances. Men consistently displayed the out-group homogeneity bias, whereas women did not. Women took into account the kind of setting: they made more errors when matching the male or the female silhouettes to the domestic settings (the stereotypical in-group settings) than when matching these silhouettes to the public settings (the stereotypical out-group settings). Finally, sex-typing measures about the self were related to the subjects' behavioural performances, especially for women.