I’m Not Like Other Guys: Establishing Moral Credentials through Progressive Beliefs

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

Abstract

Although men can play important roles in the struggle for gender equality, there is significant potential for them to inadvertently behave in ways that undermine their own efforts and reinforce male privilege. Recent research on moral credentialing may offer a key tool in explaining the unconscious processes that drive such transgressions. Drawing on this line of research, a pilot experiment was conducted to examine the ways in which allowing men and woman to establish their credentials as more “gender progressive” than other men or women effected their evaluations of a fictional female character who rejects the romantic advances of a male friend. Results show that men who were allowed to establish themselves as “gender progressive” in the first phase of the study, subsequently evaluated the female character the least positively on a warmth/likeability composite measurement. However, there was no significant difference in the evaluation of the male character between men or women, regardless of whether or not they were allowed to establish “progressive” credentials. These results provide some initial support for moral credentials being one mechanism through which men may unintentionally reinforce male privilege as a result of their role in the push for gender equality.

Author

• Tagart Cain Sobotka, Stanford University