Why men rule the world: attitudes toward social dominance and gender

Aims: Gender perception is often associated with judgements of dominance, with males being perceived as more dominant than females in almost all circumstances. The aim of this study was to discover to what extent people conflate gender with dominance. In addition we assessed whether characteristics of the observer, such as Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), beliefs about the precariousness of gender, and sex, influenced these judgements. Method: 132 Adult participants (74% female) viewed feminine and masculine point-light walkers (PLWs) paired with masculine, neutral, and feminine narratives and rated each pairing on its level of dominance. Observer SDO, Precarious Gender Beliefs (PGB), and participant reported sex were also measured. Results: Factorial analysis of variance showed significant main effects for walker and narrative type (p < .001) but no walker by narrative interaction. Male walkers were rated as more dominant than female walkers. Masculine narratives were rated as most dominant, followed by neutral narratives, with feminine narratives rated least dominant. Dominance ratings were not significantly associated with SDO, PGB, or sex. Conclusions: Both visual and verbal masculine stimuli were again judged as more dominant than feminine stimuli. However, SDO, PGB and sex seemed to have no effect on judgements of dominance. Further research on participant characteristics that may influence judgements of dominance is recommended.