Gender Difference in the Development of Dyadic Interaction Structure: A Behavioral-structural Analysis

• In Event: 136 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03 Gender Identity, Ideology and Interaction

Abstract

Gender difference regarding women’s tendency toward equality and men’s tendency toward maximizing profit in their behaviors was reexamined in an experimental study, in which female and male subjects were to interact with their virtual yet disguised as human “partner” as a dyadic team to make a series of collective decisions. Subjects’ perception of whether their “partner” is another human or a mere computer simulate was used as the independent variable and four behavioral-structural measurements of how female and male subjects differentially interacted with the partner were analyzed as the dependent variables. Our results show that the simplistic images of “equality orient women” and “profit oriented men” that past studies supported are highly questionable as women and men actually divert from these stereotypical tendencies over the course of their interactions with the partner. Implications of the findings and future suggestions are also discussed.

Authors

• May M. Takeuchi, University of North Alabama

• Alexander Takeuchi, University of North Alabama