Which representations of their gender group affect men’s orientation towards care? the case of parental leave-taking intentions

Men are currently underrepresented in traditionally female care-oriented (communal) engagement such as taking parental leave, whereas they are overrepresented in traditionally male (agentic) engagement such as breadwinning or leadership. We examined to what extent different prototypical representations of men affect men’s self-reported parental leave-taking intentions and more generally the future they can imagine for themselves with regard to work and care roles (i.e., their possible selves). We expected prototypes of men that combine the two basic stereotype dimensions of agency and communion to increase men’s communal intentions. In two experiments (N1 = 132, N2 = 233), we presented male participants with contrived newspaper articles that described the ideal man of today with varying degrees of agency and communion (between-subjects design with four conditions; combined agentic and communal vs. agentic vs. communal vs. control condition). Results of Experiment 1 were in line with the main hypothesis that especially presenting a combination of agency and communion increases men’s expectations for communal engagement: As compared to a control condition, men expected more to engage in caretaking in the future, reported higher parental leave-taking intentions, and tended to expect taking longer parental leave. Experiment 2 only partially replicated these findings, namely for parental leave-taking intentions. Both experiments additionally provided initial evidence for a contrast effect in that an exclusive focus on agency also increased men’s self-reported parental leave-taking intentions compared to the control condition. Yet, exclusively emphasizing communion in prototypes of men did not affect men’s communal intentions, which were high to begin with. We further did not find evidence for preregistered mechanisms. We discuss conditions and explanations for the emergence of these mixed effects as well as implications for the communication of gendered norms and barriers to men’s communal engagement more broadly.

Fear of Backlash Moderates Female Senior Executives' Communion (but Not Agency) as Compared to Female Lecturers

Today, many women work in occupational roles that had once been dominated by men (e.g., senior business executives). However, expectations on senior executives to be agentic (e.g., assertive, dominant) may conflict with prescriptive stereotypes about women to be communal (e.g., helpful, warm). According to this double-bind dilemma, female senior executives get criticized for lacking either agency or communion as both dimensions can be perceived as posing a tradeoff. We hypothesize that female senior executives report higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than women in a more neutral role (e.g., lecturers) due to the perceived requirements of these occupational roles. In Study 1, N = 212 students rated adjectives on their desirability for men vs. women in Chinese society. They rated agentic characteristics as more desirable for men and communal characteristics as more desirable for women. Studies 2 and 3 used this material. Study 2 randomly assigned N = 207 female students to the role of a senior executive vs. lecturer. Study 3 was conducted with N = 202 female role occupants (96 senior executives, 106 lecturers). As expected, female senior executives reported higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than female lecturers in both studies. Some women may be particularly aware of the above-mentioned double-bind dilemma and may be more worried about the potential backlash than others. They may attempt to reconcile occupational demands (i.e., higher agency, lower communion) with prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., lower agency, higher communion). We, therefore, explored whether fear of backlash attenuates the effect of the type of role of women (senior executives vs. lecturers) on agency and communion. Indeed, we found that senior executives who were particularly worried about backlash reported almost as much communion as lecturers did. In contrast, senior executives consistently reported higher levels of agency than lecturers regardless of their fear of backlash. The present study documents prescriptive gender stereotypes in China, how women differ as a function of their occupational roles, and how fear of backlash may motivate female senior executives to reconcile having high levels of both agency and communion.

Associations of Agency and Communion With Domain-Specific Self-Perceptions of Aging: A Cross-Sectional Study In Old-Old Adults in Poor Health

A large body of research indicates that self-perceptions of aging (SPA) play an important role for health in later life. Hence, more research on SPA and correlates is needed, especially in old age and poor health, where negative SPA tend to prevail. Recent studies identified personality as an important correlate of SPA in young-old and relatively healthy samples. Thus, we investigated cross-sectional associations of agency and communion with two SPA domains in a sample of old-old adults in poor health ( n = 154; Mage = 81.55, SD = 4.56, 58.4% women). In multiple regression analyses, agency and communion were associated with SPA related to ongoing development beyond health. In contrast, only health as a covariate was significantly associated with SPA related to physical losses. Thus, personality may be a resource associated with gain-related SPA, at least for those in poor health and old age.

The “Big Two” and socially induced emotions: Agency and communion jointly influence emotional contagion and emotional mimicry

Three studies investigated the effects of two fundamental dimensions of social perception on emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Rooting our hypotheses in the Dual Perspective Model of Agency and Communion (Abele and Wojciszke in Adv Exp Soc Psychol 50:198–255, 10.1016/B978-0-12-800284-1.00004-7, 2014), we predicted that agency would strengthen the effects of communion on emotional contagion and emotional mimicry (a process often considered a key mechanism behind emotional contagion). To test this hypothesis, we exposed participants to happy, sad, and angry senders characterized by low vs. high communion and agency. Our results demonstrated that, as expected, the effects of the two dimensions on socially induced emotions were interactive. The strength and direction of these effects, however, were consistent with our predictions only when the senders expressed happiness. When the senders expressed sadness, we found no effects of agency or communion on participants’ emotional responses, whereas for anger a mixed pattern emerged. Overall, our results align with the notion that emotional contagion and mimicry are modulated not only by the senders’ traits but also by the social meaning of the expressed emotion.

The “Big Two” and Socially Induced Emotions: Agency and Communion Jointly Influence Emotional Contagion and Emotional Mimicry

Three studies investigated the effects of two fundamental dimensions of social perception on emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Rooting our hypotheses in the Dual Perspective Model of Agency and Communion (Abele & Wojciszke, 2014), we predicted that agency would strengthen the effects of communion on emotional contagion and emotional mimicry (a process often considered a key mechanism behind emotional contagion). To test this hypothesis, we exposed participants to happy, sad, and angry senders characterized by low vs. high communion and agency. Our results demonstrated that, as expected, the effects of the two dimensions on socially induced emotions were interactive. The strength and direction of these effects, however, were consistent with our predictions only when the senders expressed happiness. When the senders expressed sadness, we found no effects of agency or communion on participants’ emotional responses, whereas for anger a mixed pattern emerged. Overall, our results align with the notion that emotional contagion and mimicry are modulated not only by the senders’ traits but also by the social meaning of the expressed emotion.

Stories Incarnate: Designing Embodied, Interactive Storytelling Experiences For Live Audiences

Today’s audiences are no longer content to passively consume entertainment but are seeking interactive experiences where they have agency to participate more actively. While there has been substantial innovation in entertainment genres that utilize digital media, providing interactive experiences for live audiences remains an ongoing challenge. This project presents an informal evaluation of a proof-of-concept which seeks to engage a seated audience in an embodied, interactive storytelling experience during a live circus performance where the audience can experience agency and communion. Building off Beach Ball Games for Orchestra (Delapierre 2017), where the audience used a large beach ball to play a Pac-Man-style game on a screen at the front of a concert hall, we prototyped an interactive clown show where the audience’s ability to collaborate affected the ambient media, the performer, and, by extension, the outcome of the story.

Stories Incarnate: Designing Embodied, Interactive Storytelling Experiences For Live Audiences

Today’s audiences are no longer content to passively consume entertainment but are seeking interactive experiences where they have agency to participate more actively. While there has been substantial innovation in entertainment genres that utilize digital media, providing interactive experiences for live audiences remains an ongoing challenge. This project presents an informal evaluation of a proof-of-concept which seeks to engage a seated audience in an embodied, interactive storytelling experience during a live circus performance where the audience can experience agency and communion. Building off Beach Ball Games for Orchestra (Delapierre 2017), where the audience used a large beach ball to play a Pac-Man-style game on a screen at the front of a concert hall, we prototyped an interactive clown show where the audience’s ability to collaborate affected the ambient media, the performer, and, by extension, the outcome of the story.

What do females really dream of? An individual-differences perspective on determining how narrative identity affects types of life projects and the ways of telling them

This article presents the findings of a study on life projects (LPs) created by adult females. It aims to show the specifics of future plans and of ideas on aspects of narrative identity in order to extend the existing literature. The study revealed the broad spectrum of LPs, with the most common categories related to study and work, regardless of the narrative identity incorporated into the study. However, separately taken, motives of agency and communion turned out to show some visible differences within the other types of LPs. The adoption of the identity development construct showed the specific meaning that projects had for each subgroup of narrators, who were distinguished based on the identity maturation level. In consequence, it exposed both content and formal aspects of LPs that appeared to differentiate and be characteristic for the next stages of maturity in the surveyed sample.

Gendered Perceptions of Odd and Even Numbers: An Implicit Association Study From Arabic Culture

Previous studies conducted in the United States indicate that people associate numbers with gender, such that odd numbers are more likely to be considered male and even numbers considered female. It has been argued that this number gendering phenomenon is acquired through social learning and conditioning, and that male-odd/female-even associations reflect a general, cross-cultural human consensus on gender roles relating to agency and communion. However, the incidence and pattern of number gendering in cultures outside the United States remains to be established. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to determine whether people from a culture and country very different from the United States (specifically, native Arabic citizens living in the Arabic culture of the United Arab Emirates) also associate numbers with gender, and, if they do, whether the pattern of these associations is the male-odd/female-even associations previously observed. To investigate this issue, we adopted the Implicit Association Test used frequently in previous research, where associations between numbers (odd and even) and gender (male and female faces) were examined using male and female Arabic participants native to, and resident in, the United Arab Emirates. The findings indicated that the association of numbers with gender does occur in Arabic culture. But while Arabic females associated odd numbers with male faces and even numbers with female faces (the pattern of previous findings in the United States), Arabic males showed the reversed pattern of gender associations, associating even numbers with male faces and odd numbers with female faces. These findings support the view that number gendering is indeed a cross-cultural phenomenon and show that the phenomenon occurs across very different countries and cultures. But the findings also suggest that the pattern with which numbers are associated with gender is not universal and, instead, reflects culture-specific views on gender roles which may change across cultures and gender. Further implications for understanding the association of numbers with gender across human societies are discussed.

Perceptions of interpersonal complementarity in late-middle-aged and older adults: The role of interpersonal traits and social context within an intensive ecological momentary assessment framework

Objectives: Guided by interpersonal theory, this study examined the links between everyday perceptions of interpersonal dynamics, trait-level interpersonal styles, and time-varying social contexts (i.e., with spouses, family, non-family) as they unfold in older people’s everyday life. Method: A sample of 78 late-middle-aged and older adults completed 2,739 reports of their social interactions over a one-week period (average 5.02 per day, SD = 2.95). For each report, participants recorded their perceptions of their own agentic and communal behavior, as well as that of their partner. Results: Results from multilevel modeling revealed that the complementarity in agentic behaviors was stronger when people were interacting with spouses and family members, whereas such contextual differences were not found to influence the degree of communal complementarity. Individuals with higher level trait agency tended to view their partner as more agentic across interactions with different social partners. Individuals with higher level trait communion tended to view their partner as more communal during interactions; this tendency was more pronounced when interacting with non-family members. Conclusions: The differing degrees of perceived complementarity along the dimensions of agency and communion should be understood through varying social contexts. Participants’ trait interpersonal styles tended to affect how they viewed the agentic and communal behaviors of others.