The Gendered Impact of Gossip on Perceptions of Powerful People
Open Access
- Author:
- Zipfel, Morgan
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Theresa K Vescio, Thesis Supervisor
Susan Simkins, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Gossip
Gender Bias
Leaders - Abstract:
- The purpose of this study is to assess whether the effect of gossip on perceptions of powerful people varies as a function of the gender of powerful people. Previous research has demonstrated that gossip is used by low power people as a tool for controlling the reputation and constraining the influence of powerful people. However, previous research has not taken into account well-documented gender biases which may combine with this effect to suggest that gossip more effectively undermines the influence of women (versus men) who are power holders. This study is the first to examine whether the gender of powerful people affects the persuasiveness of gossip about them. In this study, students from the Pennsylvania State University were recruited through the university’s psychology subject pool. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of the four conditions of a student review of an accomplished professor. The reviews featured either a male or female professor and the type of information included in the review was either gossip or first-hand. Participants then completed dependent measures of social closeness, warmth and competence, dominance and prestige, perceived leadership integrity, and harm. We predict that gossip will more strongly undermine the perceptions of professors who are women than men. Specifically, we predict that when professors are the target of gossip that women, compared to men, will be perceived as less warm, less competent, less prestigious, more dominant, more harmful, and as having less leadership integrity. We also expect the participants to demonstrate a preference for greater social closeness to men than women who are targets of gossip. Contrary to predictions, we found that gossip undermined the reputation of the professor regardless of gender.