Role Congruity Theory and the Consequences of Being Counterstereotypical

Now that we’ve learned quite a bit about gender stereotypes and the different forms of sexism, let’s transition to focusing on the impacts. For example, how might these gender stereotypes and forms of sexism affect hiring decisions? What happens when who you are doesn’t match people’s gender stereotypes and gender role attitudes? There are many different ways we could take this discussion, but in this video we’ll focus on Alice Eagly’s Role Congruity Theory and the consequences of being counterstereotypical, as well as how we can use these ideas to explain the discrimination-affect paradox that we learned about in a previous video.
Role Congruity Theory: Proposes that people observe women and men in their social roles and, from these observations, draw conclusions about their characteristics.