A Meta-Analysis on the Malleability of Automatic Gender Stereotypes

This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing automatic gender stereotypes. Such interventions included attentional distraction, salience of within-category heterogeneity, and stereotype suppression. A small but significant main effect (g = .32) suggests that interventions are successful, but their scope is limited. The intervention main effect was moderated by publication status, sample nationality, and type of intervention. The meta-analytic findings speak to several issues worthy of further investigation, such as whether (a) other categories of intervention not yet identified or tested could be more effective, (b) suppression necessarily produces ironic effects in automatic stereotyping, (c) different indirect measures are differentially sensitive to stereotype change, and (d) automatic stereotypes about men differ in their malleability from those about women.