Stereotypes may function as standards, such that individuals are judged relative to within-category expectations. Subjective judgments may mask stereotyping effects, whereas objective judgments may reveal stereotype-consistent patterns. We examined whether gender stereotypes about parenting lead judges to rate women and men as equally “good” parents while objective judgments favor women and whether parenting performance moderates this pattern. Participants evaluated a mother or father who successfully or unsuccessfully performed a parenting task. Subjective judgments of parent quality (“s/he is a good parent”) revealed no parent gender effects, but objective estimates of parenting performance favored mothers. In a hypothetical divorce scenario, participants also favored mothers in custody decisions. However, this pro-mother bias decreased when the mother failed at the parenting task (through her own fault). Performance did not affect custody decisions for fathers. We suggest parenting quality matters more for evaluations of mothers than for fathers because negative performance violates stereotyped expectations.
Family functioning, parenting stress and quality of life in mothers and fathers of Polish children with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome
