Do Women Feel Differently than Men? Testing Structural and Cultural Accounts of Gender Differences in Emotions

• In Event: 3481 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtables (cosponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Emotions and Social Inequality

Abstract

Sociologists of emotions have documented wide-ranging disparities in the distribution, experience, and expression of emotion between men and women (Simon and Nath 2004). It remains unclear, however, whether these disparities are due to differences in emotional response to situations, due to differences in exposure to situations, or both. In this examination, we grapple with the fundamental question whether epidemiological differences in emotions by gender are primarily driven by structural constrains (i.e., men and women are in different types of situations via their social position that elicit different types of emotional responses) or by cultural constraints (i.e., men and women are socialized to respond very differently to situations. We do this using two studies. Study 1 uses a vignette experiment to examine whether men and women differ in their reported emotional responses when presented with the same situation. Study 2 draws upon experiential sampling to examine variation in situations experienced by men and women. The results of each study provide evidence supporting structural constraints as the primary mechanism explaining patterned differences in emotions by gender.

Author

• Connor Powelson, University of Maryland-College Park