Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA, 92866, USA.
Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA, 92866, USA.
Hum Nat. 2020 Sep;31(3):296-321. doi: 10.1007/s12110-020-09376-3.
Gender differences in dishonesty and mistrust have been reported across cultures and linked to stereotypes about females being more trustworthy and trusting. Here we focus on fundamental issues of trust-based communication that may be affected by gender: the decisions whether to honestly deliver private information and whether to trust that this delivered information is honest. Using laboratory experiments that model trust-based strategic communication and response, we examined the relationship between gender, gender stereotypes, and gender discriminative lies and challenges. Drawing from a student sample, we presented males and females (N = 80) with incentivized stereotype elicitation tasks that reveal their expectations of lies and challenges from each gender, followed by a series of strategic communication interactions within and between genders. Before interacting, both genders stereotyped females as more trustworthy (expected to send more honest messages) and more trusting (expected to accept and not challenge others' messages) than males, in accord with cross-cultural gender differences. In best response to these stereotypes, both genders discriminately accepted or challenged messages based on the sender's gender. However, we find no differences between males' and females' overall rates of lies and challenges. After learning the results of their strategic interactions, males and females revised their stereotypes about lies and challenges expected of each gender; these stereotype revisions resulted in greater predictive accuracy and less disparate gender discrimination. This suggests an important facultative feature of human trust-based communication and gender stereotyping: while the delivery and trust of private information is informed by gender stereotypes, these stereotypes are recalibrated with experience.
性别差异在不诚实和不信任方面在不同文化中都有报道，并与女性更值得信赖和信任的刻板印象有关。在这里，我们专注于信任为基础的沟通的基本问题，这些问题可能会受到性别影响：是否诚实地提供私人信息的决策，以及是否信任所提供的信息是诚实的。通过模拟信任为基础的战略沟通和响应的实验室实验，我们研究了性别、性别刻板印象和性别歧视性谎言和挑战之间的关系。从学生样本中，我们向男性和女性（N=80）提出了激励性的刻板印象诱发任务，揭示了他们对每个性别说谎和挑战的期望，然后在性别内部和性别之间进行了一系列战略沟通互动。在互动之前，两性都将女性视为更值得信赖（预期会发送更多诚实的信息）和更信任（预期会接受而不会挑战他人的信息），这与跨文化的性别差异一致。作为对这些刻板印象的最佳回应，两性都根据发件人的性别歧视性地接受或挑战信息。然而，我们没有发现男性和女性说谎和挑战的总体比率之间存在差异。在了解了他们的战略互动结果后，男性和女性修正了他们对每个性别预期的谎言和挑战的刻板印象；这些刻板印象的修正导致了更高的预测准确性和更少的性别歧视。这表明了人类信任为基础的沟通和性别刻板印象的一个重要的适应性特征：尽管私人信息的传递和信任受到性别刻板印象的影响，但这些刻板印象会随着经验而重新校准。
