Updating impressions: The differential effects of new performance information on evaluations of women and men

Madeline E. Heilman, Francesca Manzi and Suzette Caleo

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2019, vol. 152, issue C, 105-121

Abstract: In three experimental studies we investigated whether changes in performance would have different consequences on the competence perceptions and performance evaluations of women and men whose earlier performance had been unmistakably successful or unsuccessful. We reasoned that the ambiguity created by new performance information that was inconsistent with previous performance information would facilitate stereotype-based gender bias. The results provided support for this idea. Whereas no differences emerged between reactions to men and women when performance remained the same, differences emerged when performance changed. Moreover, regardless of the nature of the change in performance, in male gender-typed domains women were evaluated more negatively than men: an improvement in performance had a less beneficial effect for women than for men (Study 1) and a decline in performance had a more detrimental effect for women than for men (Study 2). These effects were shown to be moderated by the gender-type of the field. Women were evaluated more negatively than men whether performance improved or declined only when the field was male gender-typed; when the field was female gender-typed, men were evaluated more negatively than women (Study 3). These findings are consistent with the idea that gender stereotypes and the performance expectations they produce can influence responses to new information about men’s and women’s performance.

Keywords: Lack of fit; Gender stereotypes; Gender bias; Competence perceptions; Performance evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597816303867
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:152:y:2019:i:c:p:105-121

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.03.010

Access Statistics for this article

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes is currently edited by John M. Schaubroeck

More articles in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().