National Stereotypes and Robots' Perception: The “Made in” Effect

In the near future, the human social environment worldwide might be populated by humanoid robots. The way we perceive these new social agents could depend on basic social psychological processes such as social categorization. Recent results indicate that humans can make use of social stereotypes when faced with robots based on their characterization as “male” or “female” and a perception of their group membership. However, the question of the application of nationality-based stereotypes to robots has not yet been studied. Given that humans attribute different levels of warmth and competence (the two universal dimensions of social perception) to individuals based in part on their nationality, we hypothesized that the way robots are perceived differs depending on their country of origin. In this study, participants had to evaluate four robots differing in their anthropomorphic shape. For each participant, these robots were presented as coming from one of four different countries selected for their level of perceived warmth and competence. Each robot was evaluated on their anthropomorphic and human traits. As expected, the country of origin's warmth and competence level biased the perception of robots in terms of the attribution of social and human traits. Our findings also indicated that these effects differed according to the extent to which the robots were anthropomorphically shaped. We discuss these results in relation to the way in which social constructs are applied to robots

Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries

Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women’s political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 CountriespublishedVersio

Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries

Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women’s political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed

La croyance en la méritocratie scolaire : Un frein à la lutte contre les inégalités sociales

International audienc

Stratégies de protection de l'estime de soi dans un contexte de comparaison intergroupe

CLERMONT FD-BCIU Lettr./Sci.Hum. (631132101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Le libre arbitre au service du jugement émis envers des victimes de sexisme

International audienceResearch has shown that belief in free will promotes self-control and personal responsibility for outcomes and behaviours. Belief in free will also increases helping behaviours and decreases aggression. Belief in free will is positively linked to prosocial behaviours and arouses moral responsibility. On the contrary, belief in determinism undermines feeling of responsibility. In this experiment, the aim was to examine whether the belief in free will is likely to improve the judgment toward a victim of a sexist act when she protests discriminatory treatment. Despite that confronting perpetrators of sexism is a necessary behaviour in order to eradicate discrimination as well as to improve intergroup relations, target of prejudice are reluctant to confront prejudice because of the fear of social costs. We suggest that impacting evaluators’ feeling of responsibility would moderate their judgment toward a victim who confronts the perpetrator of a sexist act. They should rate that the victim's reaction is appropriate and judge her more positively. Thus, the salience of belief in free will should improve the evaluation of a victim who confronted the perpetrator compared to the control condition, whereas the salience of belief in determinism should deteriorate this evaluation. This effect would be mediated by the perception of the victim's reaction as appropriate. To test this hypothesis, female participants completed an autobiographical recall task in order to make salient the belief in free will, or in determinism, or no belief (control condition). Then, they read a fictive testimony of a victim of sexism in workplace who confronted (or did not confront) the perpetrator. Finally, they had to judge this victim. Results showed that in case of confrontation, the salience of free will belief improves the judgment toward the victim compared to the control condition, and the salience of determinism belief. Moreover, as expected, this effect was mediated by the perception of the victim's reaction as appropriate to the situation. However, the salience of those beliefs did not impact the evaluation of the victim who did not confront the perpetrator. Such results extend previous research concerning the impact of free will and determinism beliefs on social regulation of behaviors. The impact of believing in free will to struggle against sexism seems relevant to explore.Les recherches antérieures ont montré les effets positifs de la croyance en un libre arbitre (vs déterminisme scientifique) sur la responsabilité morale. Dans cette expérience, l’objectif est d’étudier si cette croyance peut améliorer le jugement émis envers une victime de sexisme souvent mal jugée si elle se révolte. La croyance en un libre arbitre (ou en un déterminisme, ou aucune croyance) est rendue saillante chez des femmes qui doivent juger une victime d’un acte sexiste flagrant qui se confronte ou non à son discriminateur. Les résultats montrent que la croyance en un libre arbitre améliore le jugement émis envers une victime qui se révolte. Le rôle de la croyance en un libre arbitre dans la lutte contre le sexisme est discuté

Comment les femmes dénonçant le sexisme sont-elles perçues par les autres femmes? Le rôle du destinataire de la plainte

International audienceResearch on women’s social judgment of female victims of discrimination does not allow disentangling the impact of the type of attribution the victims made from the impact of the recipient of their complaint. The hypothesis was that female observers would judge a female victim of sexism reporting discrimination more positively than a female victim attributing her negative outcome to her abilities, when the victim was addressing the perpetrator. The opposite effect was expected when the victim was addressing a third person. Female participants had to judge a female victim of sexism attributing her negative outcome to either discrimination or her abilities and either addressing the perpetrator or a third person. The results confirmed the hypothesis. Moreover, the image of competence conveyed by the victim mediates these social judgments, showing the beneficial effect of women confronting the perpetrator.Les travaux sur le jugement social émis par les femmes envers des pairs victimes de discrimination ne permettent pas de distinguer l’impact du type d’attribution faite par les victimes de celui du destinataire de la plainte. Notre hypothèse est que, lorsque le destinataire de la plainte est l’auteur de l’acte sexiste, les femmes jugeront plus positivement une victime de sexisme dénonçant la discrimination qu’une victime attribuant cet événement négatif à ses capacités. L’effet opposé est attendu quand la victime se plaint auprès d’une tierce personne. Les participantes devaient juger une femme victime de sexisme dans son travail qui s’adressait soit à l’auteur de cet acte, soit à une tierce personne et qui expliquait cet événement négatif soit par la discrimination soit par son manque de capacités. Les résultats valident l’hypothèse. De plus, l’image de compétence véhiculée par la victime médiatise les jugements émis envers elle, montrant l’effet bénéfique pour les femmes de se confronter à l’auteur d’un acte sexiste

Belief in school meritocracy as an ideological barrier to the promotion of equality

International audienc

Which judgment do women expect from a female observer when they claim to be a victim of sexism?

International audienceThe aim of the study is to examine whether female victims of sexism expect to be negativelyjudged by their peers. Women were led to believe that a sexist male evaluator negativelyassessed a test they had taken. Then, they had to attribute their failure to discrimination in thepresence of a female observer or in a private context. In the presence of the female observer,women minimized discrimination and expect a positive judgment. In the private context, womenreported more discrimination. When this attribution became public, they expected a negativejudgment from the female observer

Minimizing a sexist act and derogating the female victim: To be or not to be in the same boat?

International audienceResearch reports inconsistent results on reactions of women towards a discriminated peer. Two experiments examine the impact of the commonality of fate on supportive or derogative reactions towards a discriminated female target. Female participants observed an ambiguous (Experiment 1) or an unambiguous (Experiments 1 and 2) sexist act against a female target with whom they shared or not a common fate. The results showed that, when they shared a common fate, participants minimized more discrimination against the target regardless the ambiguity of discrimination, and derogate her more if she claimed discrimination. These unsupportive reactions from observers did not occur in a dissimilar fate context.Minimisation du sexisme et dénigrement de la victime : importance du sort communLes recherches passées sur les réactions de femmes envers une autre femme discriminée présentent des résultats inconsistants. Deux expériences examinent l’impact du sort commun sur les réactions de soutien ou de dénigrement de femmes envers une autre femme victime de discrimination. Des participantes observent un acte sexiste ambigu (Expérience 1) ou non ambigu (Expériences 1 et 2) émis envers une cible femme avec qui elles partagent ou ne partagent pas de sort commun. Les résultats mettent en évidence que lorsque les participantes partagent un sort commun avec la victime, elles minimisent plus la discrimination envers cette dernière, que la discrimination soit ou non ambiguë, et la dénigrent en la jugeant plus négativement si elle reconnaît la discrimination. Ces comportements de dénigrement envers la victime n’apparaissent pas dans un contexte où les observatrices ne partagent pas de sort commun avec elle