The Influence of Sex Roles on Judgment

Two experiments provide convergent evidence that sex roles, when activated, influence males' and females' judgments. Activation of the genders' sex roles was achieved either by means of explicit sex role primes or by making unambiguous self- and other-relevant information highly salient. In accordance with males' self-focused agentic sex role, males' judgments were sensitive to the favorableness of only self-relevant information, whereas females, who adhere to a self- and other-sensitive sex role, rendered judgments that reflected the implications of both self- and other-relevant information.