oLT21: To Improve Psychologists’ Study of Gender We Must Consider Self-Defined Intersectional Expectations
Psychologists commonly assesses masculinity and femininity through standard lists of gender-based traits (e.g., Cejka & Eagly, 1999). These traits are not culturally neutral; Instead, masculinity and femininity are defined differently by members of different racial communities. In Study 1, Black, Asian, Latinx and White participants (N=800) provided free responses of the main expectations that people of their racial group have for (1) women and (2) men of their racial background. Responses were standardized into word clouds based on response frequencies within each group. In Study 2, a new group of participants (N=503) viewed these word clouds and rated their similarity to trait lists common in psychology. Overall, expectations generated by and for the White community were most similar to masculine and feminine traits common in psychological research, highlighting a need to improve methods by considering self-defined expectations from the perspectives of additional racial groups.
