Sex bias in the naming of stimulus persons.

Abstract

Researchers often use sex-typed names (e.g., John vs. Joan) to identify stimulus persons' sex, assuming that such names communicate sex only. In fact, however, such names also create impressions that have little or nothing to do with sex. Study 1 analyzed the age connotations, intellectual-competence connotations, and attractiveness of sex-typed names used in 230 published studies on sexism and fear of success. On each of these variables, the literature was pervasively confounded in a manner favoring male stimulus persons. Study 2 found that the name biases reported in Study 1 were positively correlated with outcome measures in a sample of sexism studies, but only when names were presented with limited other information. Possible causes of the bias are discussed, and recommendations for naming stimulus persons are presented, including a list of male names and female names matched on several key variables.