Women's advantage at remembering others' appearance: A systematic look at the why and when of a gender difference

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_2B4CB39D887A
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Women's advantage at remembering others' appearance: A systematic look at the why and when of a gender difference
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Author(s)
Schmid Mast M., Hall J. A.
ISSN
0146-1672
Publication state
Published
Issued date
04/2006
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Number
3
Pages
353-364
Language
english
Abstract
Women recall the appearance of others better than men. The goal of the present research was to shed light on the explanations and boundary conditions of this gender difference. In three studies (592 participants), the authors tested potential mediators and moderators of the gender difference. Results corroborated the robustness of the gender difference. General task motivation, general memory ability, importance of appearance, appearance knowledge, attention paid to target, gazing at target, and communal or agentic orientation could not explain why women were better at recalling others' appearance than men were. Except for importance of appearance and appearance knowledge, which both decreased the magnitude of the gender difference, general task motivation, attention paid to target, length of exposure to target, delay in responding, cognitive load, and response format (verbal vs. nonverbal) had no effect on the gender difference. Results are discussed in relation to gender differences found in the nonverbal sensitivity literature.
Keywords
Gender, Appearance, Recall, Interpersonal sensitivity
Web of science
Create date
25/11/2014 13:03
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:10
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