Effect of Attitudes toward Women on Sex Attribution

Abstract

In a search for sources of bias in sex attribution, 88 subjects with liberal and conservative attitudes toward women were compared as to performance on the Sex Attribution Questionnaire. Among women, conservative judges made more inappropriate sex attributions than liberal judges. Liberal judges erred in another way by failing to make sex attributions when they were appropriate. Among men, attitudes toward women had relatively little effect on sex attributions. For all judges, female “speakers” rather than males were more commonly the victims of such biases. Discussion focused on the differential importance of attitudes toward women as a factor in the perception of men and women.