Van Grootel Sanne, Van Laar Colette, Meeussen Loes, Schmader Toni, Sczesny Sabine
Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Brussels, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2018 Aug 10;9:1344. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01344. eCollection 2018.
Gender norms can lead men to shy away from traditionally female roles and occupations in communal HEED domains (Healthcare, Early Education, Domestic sphere) that do not fit within the social construct of masculinity. But to what extent do men underestimate the degree to which other men are accepting of men in these domains? Building on research related to social norms and pluralistic ignorance, the current work investigated whether men exhibit increased communal orientations when presented with the true norms regarding men's communal traits and behaviors vs. their perceived faulty norms. Study 1 ( = 64) revealed that young Belgian men indeed perceive their peers to hold more traditional norms regarding communal and agentic traits than their peers actually hold. Study 2 ( = 319) presented young Belgian men with altered norms to manipulate exposure to men's actual normative beliefs (i.e., what men truly think), their perceived norms (i.e., what men believe other men think), or a no information control. When men were presented with actual rather than perceived norms, they altered their own self-descriptions, future behavioral intentions, and broader gender-related social attitudes in a more communal direction. In particular, men who were presented with information about men's actual beliefs regarding the compatibility between communal and agentic traits exhibited the strongest movement toward a more communal orientation. The findings show that participants in conditions that uncover pluralistic ignorance adapted their attitudes and behaviors to be more in line with the actual norm: adopting a more communal self-concept, having lower intentions to hide future communal engagement, and supporting more progressive gender-related social change. The results are discussed in terms of influences of norms on men's communal orientations and broader attitudes toward gender-related social change, and the down-stream implications for increased gender-equality in HEED domains where men remain highly underrepresented.
性别规范可能导致男性回避公共的健康、教育与发展领域（医疗保健、早期教育、家庭领域）中不符合男性气质社会建构的传统女性角色和职业。但是，男性在多大程度上低估了其他男性对这些领域中男性的接受程度呢？基于与社会规范和多元无知相关的研究，当前的研究调查了，当面对关于男性公共特质和行为的真实规范与他们所认为的错误规范时，男性是否会表现出更强的公共取向。研究1（N = 64）表明，比利时年轻男性确实认为他们的同龄人对公共和能动性特质持有比实际情况更传统的规范。研究2（N = 319）向比利时年轻男性呈现经过改变的规范，以操控他们接触男性实际的规范信念（即男性真正的想法）、他们所感知的规范（即男性认为其他男性的想法），或者无信息对照组。当男性面对的是实际规范而非他们所感知的规范时，他们会朝着更具公共性的方向改变自己的自我描述、未来行为意图以及更广泛的与性别相关的社会态度。特别是，那些被告知男性关于公共和能动性特质兼容性的实际信念的男性，表现出朝着更具公共性取向的最强烈转变。研究结果表明，处于揭示多元无知状况下的参与者会调整他们的态度和行为，使其更符合实际规范：采用更具公共性的自我概念，降低隐藏未来公共参与的意图，并支持更进步的与性别相关的社会变革。将根据规范对男性公共取向以及对与性别相关的社会变革的更广泛态度的影响，以及对男性在其中代表性仍然极低的健康、教育与发展领域中提高性别平等的下游影响来讨论这些结果。
