Bias in the Estimated Frequency of Names

Abstract

Sixty-three undergraduates listened to a list of 26 names (13 famous men and 13 nonfamous women or 13 famous women and 13 nonfamous men), then judged how many men's and women's names there seemed to be. Subjects gave higher estimates for the gender that was famous, an effect size that was moderate ( d = 0.53). However, this effect of fame availability was not greater for famous men than for famous women as predicted from the hypothesis of a male-fame stereotype.