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People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding

We report a direct replication of our earlier study looking at how people react to research on sex differences depending on whether the research puts men or women in a better light. Three-hundred-and-three participants read a fictional popular-science article about fabricated research finding that w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stewart-Williams, Steve, Wong, Xiu Ling, Chang, Chern Yi Marybeth, Thomas, Andrew G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353872
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266171
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author Stewart-Williams, Steve
Wong, Xiu Ling
Chang, Chern Yi Marybeth
Thomas, Andrew G.
author_facet Stewart-Williams, Steve
Wong, Xiu Ling
Chang, Chern Yi Marybeth
Thomas, Andrew G.
author_sort Stewart-Williams, Steve
collection PubMed
description We report a direct replication of our earlier study looking at how people react to research on sex differences depending on whether the research puts men or women in a better light. Three-hundred-and-three participants read a fictional popular-science article about fabricated research finding that women score higher on a desirable trait/lower on an undesirable one (female-favoring difference) or that men do (male-favoring difference). Consistent with our original study, both sexes reacted less positively to the male-favoring differences, with no difference between men and women in the strength of this effect. Also consistent with our original study, belief in male privilege and a left-leaning political orientation predicted less positive reactions to the male-favoring sex differences; neither variable, however, predicted reactions to the female-favoring sex differences (in the original study, male-privilege belief predicted positive reactions). As well as looking at how participants reacted to the research, we looked at their predictions about how the average man and woman would react. Consistent with our earlier results, participants of both sexes predicted that the average man and woman would exhibit considerable own-sex favoritism. In doing so, they exaggerated the magnitude of the average woman’s own-sex favoritism and predicted strong own-sex favoritism from the average man when in fact the average man exhibited modest other-sex favoritism. A greater awareness of people’s tendency to exaggerate own-sex bias could help to ameliorate conflict between the sexes.
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spelling pubmed-89670522022-03-31 People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding Stewart-Williams, Steve Wong, Xiu Ling Chang, Chern Yi Marybeth Thomas, Andrew G. PLoS One Research Article We report a direct replication of our earlier study looking at how people react to research on sex differences depending on whether the research puts men or women in a better light. Three-hundred-and-three participants read a fictional popular-science article about fabricated research finding that women score higher on a desirable trait/lower on an undesirable one (female-favoring difference) or that men do (male-favoring difference). Consistent with our original study, both sexes reacted less positively to the male-favoring differences, with no difference between men and women in the strength of this effect. Also consistent with our original study, belief in male privilege and a left-leaning political orientation predicted less positive reactions to the male-favoring sex differences; neither variable, however, predicted reactions to the female-favoring sex differences (in the original study, male-privilege belief predicted positive reactions). As well as looking at how participants reacted to the research, we looked at their predictions about how the average man and woman would react. Consistent with our earlier results, participants of both sexes predicted that the average man and woman would exhibit considerable own-sex favoritism. In doing so, they exaggerated the magnitude of the average woman’s own-sex favoritism and predicted strong own-sex favoritism from the average man when in fact the average man exhibited modest other-sex favoritism. A greater awareness of people’s tendency to exaggerate own-sex bias could help to ameliorate conflict between the sexes. Public Library of Science 2022-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8967052/ /pubmed/35353872 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266171 Text en © 2022 Stewart-Williams et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stewart-Williams, Steve
Wong, Xiu Ling
Chang, Chern Yi Marybeth
Thomas, Andrew G.
People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title_full People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title_fullStr People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title_full_unstemmed People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title_short People react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: A direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
title_sort people react more positively to female- than to male-favoring sex differences: a direct replication of a counterintuitive finding
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353872
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266171
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