TY - JOUR
T1 - The deficit bias
T2 - Candidate gender differences in the relative importance of facial stereotypic qualities to leadership hiring
AU - Pireddu, Sara
AU - Bongiorno, Renata
AU - Ryan, Michelle K.
AU - Rubini, Monica
AU - Menegatti, Michela
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Recent findings highlight two facets of the two fundamental stereotype content dimensions of agency (i.e., ‘dominance’ and ‘competence’) and communality (i.e., ‘morality’ and ‘sociability’; e.g., Abele et al., 2016) with implications for understanding gender inequality in the workplace (e.g., Prati et al., 2019). Extending this research and contributing to the facial first impressions literature, we examined how these facets of agency and communality when inferred from White men’s and women’s faces, along with attractiveness, influence their leadership suitability. In three studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 424), using student and working samples and two managerial descriptions, we found an unexpected pattern of results, supported by an internal meta-analysis: attractiveness and competence were the most important predictors of hirability for all candidates. For women, dominance was the next most important predictor; for men, morality and sociability were more important than dominance. Moreover, morality and sociability were more important in evaluating men than women, while dominance was more important in evaluating women than men. Findings are discussed in terms of a ‘deficit bias’, whereby the qualities women and men are considered to lack – dominance for women, morality, and sociability for men – may be given more weight when evaluating their leadership suitability.
AB - Recent findings highlight two facets of the two fundamental stereotype content dimensions of agency (i.e., ‘dominance’ and ‘competence’) and communality (i.e., ‘morality’ and ‘sociability’; e.g., Abele et al., 2016) with implications for understanding gender inequality in the workplace (e.g., Prati et al., 2019). Extending this research and contributing to the facial first impressions literature, we examined how these facets of agency and communality when inferred from White men’s and women’s faces, along with attractiveness, influence their leadership suitability. In three studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 424), using student and working samples and two managerial descriptions, we found an unexpected pattern of results, supported by an internal meta-analysis: attractiveness and competence were the most important predictors of hirability for all candidates. For women, dominance was the next most important predictor; for men, morality and sociability were more important than dominance. Moreover, morality and sociability were more important in evaluating men than women, while dominance was more important in evaluating women than men. Findings are discussed in terms of a ‘deficit bias’, whereby the qualities women and men are considered to lack – dominance for women, morality, and sociability for men – may be given more weight when evaluating their leadership suitability.
KW - deficit bias
KW - facial first impressions
KW - gender stereotypes
KW - leadership selection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115335478&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/bjso.12501
DO - 10.1111/bjso.12501
M3 - Article
C2 - 34553397
AN - SCOPUS:85115335478
SN - 0144-6665
VL - 61
SP - 644
EP - 671
JO - British Journal of Social Psychology
JF - British Journal of Social Psychology
IS - 2
ER -