Lending a helping hand: The effects of gender stereotypes and gender on likelihood of helping

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of gender and gender-role stereotypes on judgments of help-giving. As part of a 2 x 2 within-subjects design, 40 undergraduates read 4 different scenarios that described either a man or a woman needing help in either a stereotypically masculine or a stereotypically feminine situation. Although mate participants felt more sympathy for men in stereotypically feminine situations and for women in stereotypically masculine situations, they were no more likely to help these individuals than they were to help those in gender-consistent situations. By contrast, women were more likely to help people in gender-inconsistent situations, despite feeling the most sympathy for people needing help in masculine situations. Implications for Weiner's (1980) attribution model of help-giving and Nadler & Fisher's (1986) threat-to-self-esteem model are discussed.