Relationships Between Sex, Sex Role, and Social Influence

Abstract

A study (N = 60) was conducted to investigate the relationship between sex, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, and measures of social influence. These influence measures involved self-reports of influence strategies, peer evaluations after group discussions, the Marlowe-Crowne Social-Desirability Scale, and a conformity paradigm. It was found that regardless of the subject's sex, masculine and androgynous persons received more positive peer evaluations than feminine persons. Feminine people regardless of sex were more likely than masculine or androgynous people ( p < .05) to report using tears, emotional alteration, and subtlety in efforts to influence others. It was also found that sex-typed and androgynous persons had higher need for approval scores than cross-sex-typed individuals.