Illusions of Gender: Stereotypes Evoke False Memories

Two experiments examined whether false memories can arise from indirect stereotype associations, as revealed by the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. As predicted, exposure to either a list of stereotypically female roles or a list of stereotypically male roles resulted in an increase in the false recognition of stereotypically consistent roles and traits. In both of the experiments, the participants were shown to be unaware of the influence of stereotypes on their responses, indicating that the false memories were the result of implicit associative processes. Evidence was also obtained for the limited but important role of an exclusionary strategy that may prevent certain types of false memories.