Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of gender role contextualization on recall of intercategory and intracategory infomation. It is hypothesized that contextualized perception than uncontextualized perception on gender role(husband or wife) make more gender stereotype that inter-gender errors(inter-category errors) make less than intra-gender errors(intra-category errors) on traits recall of target person. In order to test this hypothesis, Experiment I and Experiment II were conducted. In experiment I and experiment II, After subjects were allocated to two fictional category(to gender analogy category in Experiment I, to neutral category in Experiment II, both uncontextualization condition and role contextualization condition were manipulated, respectively. The uncontextualization condition only was manipulated by allocating two fictional category both Experiment I and Experiment II. In contrast, The role-contextualization condition was manipulated by giving gender role, husband and wife role, respectively. Gender stereotype as dependent variables was measured by inter-category errors and intra-category errors on traits recall of target. In the result, both Experiment I and Experiment II, first, the role-contextualization condition than the uncontextualization condition make more gender stereotype. Second, the role-contextualization condition than the uncontextualization condition make more gender stereotype in relevant traits(agentic traits and cammunal traits) relative to gender category than irrelevant traits(neutral traits). These hypotheses were confirmed by the given two experimental data. Results are discussed in relation to the process and the content origin in processing of the gender stereotype.