Contesting gender stereotypes stimulates generalized fairness in the selection of leaders

Carola Leicht, Georgina Randsley de Moura, Richard J. Crisp

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    31 Citations (Scopus)
    243 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Exposure to counter-stereotypic gender role models (e.g., a woman engineer) has been shown to successfully reduce the application of biased gender stereotypes. We tested the hypothesis that such efforts may more generally lessen the application of stereotypic knowledge in other (non-gendered) domains. Specifically, based on the notion that counter-stereotypes can stimulate a lesser reliance on heuristic thinking, we predicted that contesting gender stereotypes would eliminate a more general group prototypicality bias in the selection of leaders. Three studies supported this hypothesis. After exposing participants to a counter-stereotypic gender role model, group prototypicality no longer predicted leadership evaluation and selection. We discuss the implications of these findings for groups and organizations seeking to capitalize on the benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1025-1039
    JournalLeadership Quarterly
    Volume25
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Bibliographical note

    This is a pre-print article: Leicht, C., Randsley de Moura, G. and Crisp, R.J. (2014) Contesting gender stereotypes stimulates generalized fairness in the selection of leaders. Leadership Quarterly 25 (5) 1025-1039, Copyright © 2014 Elsevier

    Keywords

    • Leadership
    • Group prototypicality
    • Gender role model
    • Counter-stereotypes

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