Chinese Negative Reactions to Positive Gender Stereotypes: A Perspective of Psychological Reactance Theory

Abstract

Individuals’ lives depend heavily on their freedom, which is why they may respond with reactance if freedom is threatened. Our research, which spans four studies with 1,486 Chinese students as participants, from the perspective of psychological reactance theory, provides evidence that positive gender stereotypes can provoke targets’ negative reactions. In Study 1, participants who heard a speaker state a positive gender stereotype (e.g., “women are beautiful” and “men are strong”) disliked the speaker more, believed that the speaker was more gender prejudiced, and experienced stronger negative emotions than those who heard no stereotype. In Studies 2−4, freedom threat was a crucial mediator in the relation between the positive gender stereotype and targets’ negative reactions. Furthermore, depersonalization also played a parallel mediating role. Although positive gender stereotypes seem superficially complimentary, they may have detrimental effects on interpersonal relations. Our research suggests that people should refrain from using stereotypes in their interpersonal interactions whenever possible. Even though people may sometimes inevitably convey positive stereotypes to others, they should be given the freedom to minimize the negative consequences of such stereotypes. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/DOI: 10.1177/03616843241242711