When do counterstereotypic ingroup members inspire versus deflate? The effect of successful professional women on young women's leadership self-concept.
Three experiments tested whether and when exposure to counterstereotypic ingroup members enhances women's implicit leadership self-concept. Participants read about professional women leaders framed as similar to versus different from most women (Experiment 1) or having the same versus different collegiate background as participants (Experiment 3). Experiment 2 manipulated similarity by giving false feedback about participants' similarity to women leaders. In all cases, seeing women leaders reduced implicit self-stereotyping relative to controls but only when they were portrayed as similar to one's ingroup (Experiment 1) and oneself (Experiments 2-3). Leaders portrayed as dissimilar either had no effect on self-beliefs (Experiment 1 and 3) or increased implicit self-stereotyping (Experiment 2). Dissimilar leaders also deflated participants' career goals and explicit leadership beliefs (Experiment 3). Finally, implicit self-beliefs became less stereotypic regardless of whether women believed the similarity feedback, but explicit self-beliefs changed only when they believed the feedback to be true (Experiment 2).
Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA. shakiasgari@yahoo.com
Shaki
S
Asgari
Nilanjana
N
Dasgupta
Jane G
JG
Stout
D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D012380:Role; D012649:Self Concept; D013240:Stereotyping; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult