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Abstract
Lack of confidence in one's own ability can increase the likelihood of relying on social information. Sex differences in confidence have been extensively investigated in cognitive tasks, but implications for conformity have not been directly tested. Here, we tested the hypothesis that, in a task that shows sex differences in confidence, an indirect effect of sex on social information use will also be evident. Participants (N = 168) were administered a mental rotation (MR) task or a letter transformation (LT) task. After providing an answer, participants reported their confidence before seeing the responses of demonstrators and being allowed to change their initial answer. In the MR, but not the LT, task, women showed lower levels of confidence than men, and confidence mediated an indirect effect of sex on the likelihood of switching answers. These results provide novel, experimental evidence that confidence is a general explanatory mechanism underpinning susceptibility to social influences. Our results have implications for the interpretation of the wider literature on sex differences in conformity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 655-667 |
Journal | British Journal of Psychology |
Volume | 108 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 11 Nov 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2017 |
Keywords
- Gender
- Social learning
- Mental rotation
- Letter transformation
- Gender stereotype
- Stereotype threat
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Dive into the research topics of 'Sex differences in confidence influence patterns of conformity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
Profiles
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Robert Catharine May
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience - Lecturer in Comparative & Evolutionary Psychology
- Centre for Research into Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences
- Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution
Person: Academic
Datasets
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Dataset: 'Sex differences in confidence influence patterns of conformity'
Cross, C. P. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 25 Oct 2016
DOI: 10.17630/f30ba2e6-f6d7-4ae9-9f53-6bf0e95cf62e
Dataset
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