Influence of Professional Status on Perceptions of Romantic Relationship Dynamics

Men and women who violate traditional expectations with regard to professional status are perceived negatively by others, and can face negative outcomes in the workplace. Here we examine whether these negative perceptions extend to observers' evaluations of status violators' intimate relationships. We employed a fictional scenario depicting a heterosexual married couple, manipulating the professional status of each character while holding all other information constant. Participants (N = 396) projected lower relationship satisfaction onto the husband when he had lower professional status than his wife (nontraditional condition). Participants in this condition also liked and sympathized with the wife less, and perceived her as having more power in the relationship than her husband. Finally, these effects were mediated by ratings of the characters on perceived normative masculinity/femininity. These findings contribute to existing research on the penalties that both male and female gender role violators face, suggesting additional consequences for outsiders' perceptions of their intimate relationships.