The Influence Of Group Gender Composition And Performance Anticipation Consistency On Impression Evaluation And The Role Of Attribution

Group impression reflects people’s views on themselves and contemporary society,and also affects people’s mind and behavior profoundly.With the gradual imbalance of the sex ratio of the population in China,the gender composition of groups has gradually attracted people’s attention.This paper uses the proportion of men in the group to represent the group’s gender composition,and sets five levels:100%,75%,50%,25%,0%,that is,the group’s gender composition of 100%,75%,50%,25%,0% corresponds to the proportion of men in the group of 100%,75%,50%,25%,0%.Through three studies,the impact of gender composition on group impression evaluation is first investigated,on this basis,examine the impact of consistency between group performance and expectations in task contexts on group impression evaluation,and further explore the role of attribution in this process.In the first study,the gender composition of the group was taken as the core variable,and its impact on impression evaluation was systematically investigated.Study 1A and 1B measured people’s impression of different gender composition groups using trait word evaluation method and emotional thermometer method respectively,and the results obtained were relatively stable.Both sub-studies found that people believed that groups with a gender composition of 100% were high in competence and low in warmth,groups with a gender composition of 75% and 50%were both high in competence and warmth,groups with a gender composition of 25%were low in competence and high in warmth,and groups with a gender composition of 0% were both in low in competence and warmth.In addition,studies 1A and 1B took the gender composition of the group as a continuous variable,and fitted its relationship with group impression by establishing a linear model and a curve model.It was found that it fits the curve model.With the increase of the gender composition,the group impression showed a trend of rising at begin and then falling.When the male composition in the group accounted for the majority,the group got the best ability impression,and when the male composition and the female composition in the group was balanced,the group got the best warmth impression.The second study systematically examined how gender composition and consistency of performance expectations on group impression evaluation.Study 2A measured people’s expectations of successful performance in task situations for groups with different gender composition.It was found that people expected the groups with gender composition of 75% and 50% to be the most likely to succeed in male tasks,the groups with gender composition of 0% to be the least likely,the groups with gender composition of 50% and 25% to be the most likely to succeed in female tasks,and the groups with gender composition of 100% to be the least likely.Study 2B measured the impact of the consistency of performance expectations on the impression evaluation of groups with different gender composition.It was found that when the group’s performance in the task situation was consistent with expectations,people’s evaluation of the group was similar to that made based on the gender composition,but when it was inconsistent with expectations,people’s evaluation of the group changes greatly.Compared with the evaluation made by the gender composition,when the performance of the group’s male task is inconsistent with the expectation,people’s ability evaluation of the group with gender composition of 100%,75% and 50% becomes lower,and the ability evaluation of the group with gender composition of 25% and 0% becomes higher;When the performance of the female task of the group is inconsistent with the expectation,people’s ability evaluation of the group with the gender composition of 100%,75% and 50% becomes lower,and the warmth evaluation of the group with the gender composition of 50% and 25%becomes lower.In addition,study 2B examined people’s attribution to group task performance from the internal and external dimensions,and found that people tend to attribute task performance to internal reasons,and attribution had a part of mediating effect on the impression evaluation of groups with different gender composition.Study 3 adds attribution information on the basis of study 2.The results show that when the expected consistent or inconsistent task performance is attributed to external attribution,people’s evaluation of the group is similar to that made based on gender composition information.When the expected consistent or inconsistent task performance is attributed to internal attribution,people’s evaluation of the group is similar to that of the group in study 2B.This result also verifies the result of study 2B.People tend to explain the group’s task performance from internal reasons,so the information provided by task performance has a greater impact on the group impression evaluation.To sum up,people’s impression evaluation based only on the gender composition of the group is affected by the stereotype of the gender which is dominant in the group.After adding the task performance of the group that is consistent and inconsistent with the expectation,because people tend to attribute the task performance to the internal factors of the group,the task performance will change people’s impression evaluation of the group.It provides some ideas for the groups with negative impression to change the impression evaluation of themselves.