Attitude toward women's societal roles moderates the effect of gender cueson target individuation

In 4 studies, participants lead trait descriptions and formed impressions o f 2 male and 2 female targets. They then attempted to recall which traits h ad described each target. As predicted, participants with a "progressive" a ttitude toward women's rights and roles (J. T. Spence, R. L. Helmreich, & J . Stapp, 1973) made fewer within-group recall errors for female targets tha n for male targets, indicating greater individuation of the female targets, whereas participants with a "traditional" attitude made fewer errors for m ale targets. The findings of a 5th study suggested that progressive partici pants were motivated to individuate women by their belief that it is import ant to improve the status of women and other groups low in power and by the ir identification with women and feminism. Traditional participants' greate r individuation of men was believed to stem from their perception of men's higher status las confirmed by pretests) and their acceptance of the status quo.