The Gendered Brain: Implications of Exposure to Neuroscience Research for Gender Essentialist Beliefs

Şahin Ö., SOYLU YALÇINKAYA N.

Sex Roles, cilt.84, sa.9-10, ss.522-535, 2021 (SSCI, Scopus) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 84 Sayı: 9-10
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11199-020-01181-7
  • Dergi Adı: Sex Roles
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, PASCAL, Periodicals Index Online, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Gender Studies Database, Index Islamicus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Political Science Complete, Psycinfo, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.522-535
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Brain differences, Gender differences, Gender essentialism, Gender inequality, Neurosexism
  • Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

How fundamentally different do people generally think men and women are? Gender essentialism refers to beliefs that women and men have distinct, innate, and fixed biological essences that differentiate them from each other. Exposure to popularized neuroscience research may shape such views. We examined whether exposure to scientific evidence for gender differences or similarities in the brain affects beliefs about gender essentialism, and indirectly shapes sexism and justification of gender inequality, using samples from Turkey. Study 1 (n = 414 undergraduates) showed that exposure to evidence on brain similarities led to lower gender essentialist beliefs, which, in turn, negatively predicted sexism and justification of gender inequality. Unexpectedly, exposure to evidence on gender differences did not lead to an increase in gender essentialist beliefs. Although men scored higher than women on all measures, the indirect effects were significant for both men and women. In Study 2 (n = 119 online community respondents), we found indirect effects of exposure to evidence of brain similarities on justification of gender inequality. We discuss the implications of our findings for challenging gender essentialist views among students and the general public through exposure to research on gender similarities and increased critical thinking about scientific research evidence.