Gender bias

• gender bias can affect:

  • conclusions (by media and researchers)
  • observations (missed out behavioural categories that relate to one gender)
  • design
• Gender bias is the differential treatment of representations of males and females, based on stereotypes and not real differences
• real gender differences confirmed through cross-cultural studies:

  • girls greater verbal ability
  • boys greater visual and spatial abilities
  • girls less aggressive than boys
  • boys greater arithmetical ability in adolescence
• Gender Bias, what can be done to change it?

  • change in publication of results

  as there’s a bias towards publishing positive results, results that find gender differences are more likely to get published than those which don’t, exaggerating gender differences. (Alpha Bias)
• Improving gender bias

  • Improve sampling

  not simply have all male samples in studies, like Milgram, Asch and Zimbardo, instead ensure women included (Beta Bias)
• Improving gender bias

  • Don’t generalise findings from research with male participants to females or vice versa (Beta Bias)