Can a professor be a woman? Gendered perceptions in a riddle experiment

This preregistered study examined how unconscious gender schemas, demographic characteristics, and life experiences influence the recognition of women in academic authority roles. A sample of US-based students (n = 1,686) was presented with a riddle task modelled after the classic surgeon scenario, adapted to a university setting. Solving the riddle required identifying a professor as the child’s mother, thereby challenging traditional gender schemas. Only 17 per cent of participants arrived at this interpretation, despite clear narrative cues. The professor’s disciplinary affiliation – whether a traditionally male-dominated field (physics), a female-dominated field (art history), or a gender-balanced field (geography) – had little effect on solution rates. We conducted logistic regression analyses to assess whether exposure to female academics, political orientation, feminist identity, or other demographic factors predicted successful identification of the professor as a woman. Interestingly, male participants were more likely than female participants to solve the riddle in this way. This unexpected finding may reflect differences in schema activation or response strategies, although further investigation is needed to clarify the underlying mechanisms. Notably, willingness to donate to a foundation supporting women in academia – a measure of prosocial behaviour – did not significantly predict the proposed solution to the riddle. A supplementary study supported the face validity of the task: participants judged the ‘mother’ solution to be both plausible and typically overlooked due to prevailing stereotypes. These findings demonstrate that gender schemas remain deeply embedded and can shape cognitive interpretations even when contextual cues contradict them. The results underscore the persistence of implicit bias in academic contexts.