Awareness of Stereotype Usage on Perceptions of Women

The purpose of this investigation was to test how perceived prevalence of stereotype usage affects work related perceptions of women in general, women resembling the "professional woman" subtype, and women resembling "sexual object" subtype. Information on prevalence of stereotype usage was manipulated by indicating that stereotyping was either high or low in prevalence. The primary operationalization of the subtypes was through photographs and attire, with the general women condition having no photo. A male no image comparison condition was also used. Because the various stereotypes are characterized with different ratings, it was expected that participants would rate targets more similarly to each other when participants believed stereotyping is low in prevalence compared to when participants believe that stereotyping is high in prevalence. Approximately 159 participants were randomly assigned into one of the eight groups in a 2 (prevalence condition) x 4 (image condition) factorial between subjects design. Primary and supplementary analyses revealed no significant results. Evidence was found of manipulation failures, despite taking several precautions to prevent them. Therefore, it may be worth continuing on with this investigation in order to gain insight on how stereotype prevalence information affects work-related perceptions across various subtypes of women.