New research recently presented at the 2008 Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference reiterated the fact that individuals still use sex-based stereotypes of emotion to describe women’s behavior. Two studies assessed the reasons why people were thought to express emotions; either based on core characteristics or situational explanations. In the first study, participants were given male and female photos (each expressing similar emotions) that were paired with situational causes directly underneath. Even with these situational explanations, participants more frequently judged female photos as characteristically “emotional” and male photos as “having a bad day.” A second study used androgynous faces that were made to appear male or female by creating a masculine or feminine hairstyle. Again, even with situational explanations for the expressed emotion located directly underneath the photo, participants still attributed the female’s expression due to innate characteristics, and the male’s expression due to situational factors.

These findings help to explain why women are more often called emotional when compared to men. It seems that stereotypical beliefs about a women’s core disposition are still used to discredit her expression as anything more than just overreaction. Men still get the benefit of reacting appropriately to a situation, or just having a bad day. It is time that women were judged fairly and within context just the same as men.

Further Reading:

Feldman-Barrett, L., Brennan, L., Yemelyanova, N., & Bliss-Moreau, E. (2008). She is emotional. He is having a bad day: Attributional explanations for sex-base stereotypes of emotion. Paper presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, New Mexico.