Gender stereotype-consistent memories: How system justification motivation distorts the recollection of information related to the self

Research based on system justification theory has shown that women's self-perceptions may be altered by the motivation to justify the system and its inequalities. Self-perceptions being built on past experiences, the present study aimed to explore how system justification motivation induced through a system dependency manipulation may alter both women's recall of autobiographical memories and their behavior. Women who were led to feel highly dependent on the social system perceived themselves as more competent and recalled memories of higher competence in the verbal domain compared with the negatively stereotyped scientific domain. Women's behavioral choices (between doing a verbal or a math exercise) also revealed a higher preference for the gender stereotype-consistent verbal exercise in the high-system dependency condition, as compared with the low-system dependency condition. These results suggest that gender stereotypes may not only satisfy self-or group-serving motivation but also the need to perceive the system in a positive light.