Department of Sociology/300, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89503, USA.
Int J Psychol. 2010 Jun 1;45(3):202-11. doi: 10.1080/00207591003587705.
The present research examines the interplay between individual differences in need for structure, social beliefs, and gender. It is well documented that need for structure, that is, a preference for structure and simplicity in one's thinking, predicts authoritarianism and ethnocentrism. Further, women tend to score lower in authoritarianism and ethnocentrism than men. Although there seem to be no gender differences in need for structure, the present research hypothesizes that the association between need for structure and social beliefs is stronger for men than for women. This hypothesis comes from the observation that, all else being equal, men tend to think more about the domain of beliefs such as authoritarianism and ethnocentrism, which should strengthen the relationship between men's cognitive needs and their social beliefs. The hypothesis is also motivated by the finding that, more than men, women often give priority to caring and compassion when forming beliefs about outgroups. This should weaken the link between women's cognitive needs and their social beliefs. Three studies conducted in the USA (n = 398) and one study conducted in Germany (n = 112) examined whether gender moderated the influence of need for structure on authoritarianism and racism. Using a variety of measures, need for structure predicted authoritarianism and racism for men, but not for women. The discussion focuses on the implications of the present findings for the relationship between cognitive orientations and social beliefs. It is argued that research on cognitive orientation and social beliefs needs to take gender into account to improve its accuracy of prediction.
本研究考察了个体差异中的结构需求、社会信仰和性别之间的相互作用。有大量文献表明，结构需求，即人们在思维中对结构和简洁的偏好，预测了威权主义和种族中心主义。此外，女性的威权主义和种族中心主义得分往往低于男性。尽管结构需求似乎没有性别差异，但本研究假设，结构需求与社会信仰之间的关联对男性的影响大于女性。这一假设来自于这样一种观察，即在其他条件相同的情况下，男性往往更倾向于思考信仰等领域，如威权主义和种族中心主义，这应该加强男性认知需求与其社会信仰之间的关系。这一假设还受到以下发现的启发：与男性相比，女性在形成对外群体的信仰时，往往更优先考虑关怀和同情。这应该削弱女性认知需求与其社会信仰之间的联系。在美国进行的三项研究（n=398）和在德国进行的一项研究（n=112）检验了性别是否调节了结构需求对威权主义和种族主义的影响。使用多种测量方法，结构需求预测了男性的威权主义和种族主义，但对女性没有预测作用。讨论集中在本研究结果对认知取向和社会信仰之间关系的影响。有人认为，认知取向和社会信仰的研究需要考虑到性别因素，以提高其预测的准确性。
