Anxiety, gender, and impression formation

A great deal of research on impression formation has revealed that a multitude of factors influence impression formation, and that anxiety has a negative influence on these impressions. Yet despite a wide body of research it remains unclear how gender perceptions of anxiety, and the stereotypes associated with anxiety, impact the impressions formed of anxious individuals. In order to investigate this further, it has been hypothesized that males and females will: (a) view a non-anxious gender-neutral target as a member of the same gender, and (b) view an anxious gender-neutral target as a member of the opposite gender. In a study examining these effects, 80 participants (40 males and 40 females), were presented with a scenario of a gender-neutral anxious or non-anxious target and then asked to evaluate, and allocate a gender to the individual presented. The following study will further examine these hypotheses, with an in-depth assessment of the results and their implications.