Winning or losing against an opposite-sex peer on a gender-based competitive task

Two studies with heterosexual female and male college students explored the effects on mood and body image resulting from a negative versus a positive outcome in a competitive interaction. In study I, participants either succ eeded or failed in comparison to an opposite-sex confederate on a gender-ne utral task of anagram solution. Study 2 added the dimension of the gender s tereotypicality of the task by creating empirically derived feminine (beaut y aid knowledge) and masculine (tool construction knowledge) conditions. Th e results indicated that women's anger significantly increased following th e masculine task, regardless of the outcome. A marginally significant three -way interaction resulted for the depression measure: Females who won at th e masculine task had higher levels of depression than males in this conditi on, and higher levels than both males and females in the masculine-lose con dition. In contrast, males who "won" on the feminine task had higher levels of depression than females in this condition, and higher levels than both males and females who lost on the feminine task Discussion centers on the p otential usefulness of the gender-stereotypicality measure for future resea rch and the need for followup work to replicate the current findings.