Help
Three studies demonstrate how culture shapes the contents of gender stereotypes, such that men are perceived as possessing more of whatever traits are culturally valued. In Study 1, Americans rated men as less interdependent than women; Koreans, however, showed the opposite pattern, rating men as more interdependent than women, deviating from the “universal” gender stereotype of male independence. In Study 2, bi-cultural Korean American participants rated men as less interdependent if they completed a survey in English, but as more interdependent if they completed the survey in Korean, demonstrating how cultural frames influence the contents of gender stereotypes. In Study 3, American college students rated a male student as higher on whichever trait – ambitiousness or sociability – they were told was the most important cultural value at their university, establishing that cultural values causally impact the contents of gender stereotypes.
Men are independent; women are interdependent. Westerners are independent; East Asians are interdependent. Both of these statements have overwhelming empirical support, yet taken together they raise a potential paradox: Are East Asian males seen as independent – reflecting the universal male stereotype – or as interdependent – reflecting the values of their culture? One prediction is two main effects: East Asians are seen as more interdependent than Westerners, and within each culture, men are seen as more independent than women. Instead, we suggest – and the studies below demonstrate – a counterintuitive interaction: Men are seen as embodying those traits that are most culturally valued, such that while American men are seen as more independent than American women, Korean men are actually seen as more interdependent than Korean women. More broadly, we demonstrate that men are seen as possessing more of any traits that are culturally valued – whether chronically or temporarily – such that men serve as cultural ideals.
The contents of gender stereotypes – the traits that are perceived as uniquely characteristic of women versus men – turn on the dimension of independence-interdependence. Men are stereotyped as independent, agentic, and goal oriented; women are stereotyped as interdependent, communal, and oriented toward others (Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Spence & Helmreich, 1978). These stereotypes affect important life outcomes such as hiring and promotion (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2004; Gorman, 2005; Heilman, 2001), job performance evaluations (Fuegen, Biernat, Haines, & Deaux, 2004; Heilman & Okimoto, 2007), academic performance (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2000), and even sexual harassment (Berdahl, 2007). The contents of gender stereotypes are accepted as pervasive and universal (Heilman, 2001), and are endorsed by both men and women (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007; Wood & Eagly, 2010) and across cultures (Williams & Best, 1990).
A parallel distinction that also hinges on the independence-interdependence dimension sorts cultures and their core values – the defining values that are strongly endorsed by the members of a culture (Wan, Chiu, Tam, Lee, Lau & Peng, 2007). Cultures can be characterized as individualistic versus collectivistic (Triandis, 1989), or independent versus interdependent (Markus & Kitayama, 1991), based on the degrees to which individuals versus relationships are emphasized, respectively. Individualistic/independent societies, such as the United States, emphasize autonomy, individual goals, and self-reliance; collectivistic/interdependent societies such as South Korea, in contrast, emphasize social embeddedness, communal goals, and social duties and obligations (Hofstede, 1980; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Schwartz, 1994; Triandis, 1989). Cultural differences in independence-interdependence manifest in domains such as communication (Gudykunst, Matsumoto, & Ting-Toomey, 1996), creativity (Schwartz, 1999), and even basic cognitive processing (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001).
Given that men as a group possess higher status in virtually every nation in the world (United Nations, 2009), and that higher status groups tend to be viewed as possessing more of whatever skills their society most values (Ridgeway, 2001), cultural values and gender stereotypes seem to sometimes align. In cultures that value independence such as the United States, for example, men are seen as possessing more of the most culturally valued trait – independence. In those cultures where independence is not highly valued, however, a mismatch arises: If stereotypes of men do indeed reflect cultural values, then how should we expect Asian men to be stereotyped relative to Asian women – as more independent, consistent with the “universal” male gender stereotype, or as more interdependent, consistent with Asian cultural values?