Relationship of Race to Perceived Gender Stereotypes

Gender and racial stereotyping are well-documented phenomena that may negatively impact the lives of the stereotyped. However, less is known about how gender stereotypes intersect with the race of the person being stereotyped. This study asked 153 undergraduate psychology students to quickly determine whether a set of gender-stereotyped words “go with” a set of photos or a set of phrases representing people and varying on both gender and race; proportion of response agreement was measured. As predicted, responses could not be explained entirely by gender stereotypes. Rather, unique patterns emerged for each gender × race category. Surprisingly, the phrase condition appeared to elicit more associations than the photo condition.