We present the first empirical investigation of why men are assumed to earn higher salaries than women (the salary estimation effect). Although this phenomenon is typically attributed to conscious consideration of the national wage gap (i.e., real inequities in salary), we hypothesize instead that it reflects differential, automatic economic valuing of men and women. In the four studies described here, we demonstrate that the salary estimation effect is present in both student and community samples, is not explained by participants' awareness of real gender inequities in pay, and appears in descriptive tasks (i.e., estimating what men and women do earn; Studies 1 and 2) as well as in a prescriptive task (i.e., determining what men and women should earn; Study 3). Further, the salary estimation effect is best predicted by the degree to which participants hold an automatic stereotype that links men, more than women, with wealth (Study 4). These results suggest that differential estimates of men's and women's salaries, rather than deliberately reflecting reality, instead indicate a male-wealth stereotype that operates largely outside of awareness. We discuss the implications of these results for salary decision making and the unintentional perpetuation of the gender gap in wages.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlksnisC.DesmaraisS.CurtisJ. (2008). Workforce segregation and the gender wage gap: Is “women's” work valued as highly as “men's”?Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 1416–1441.
2.
American Association of University Women. (2005). Public perceptions of the pay gap. Washington, DC: The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.
BlauF. D.KahnL. M. (2000). Gender differences in pay.Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 75–99.
7.
BurgessD.BorgidaE. (1999). Who women are, who women should be: Descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotyping in sex discrimination.Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 5, 665–692.
8.
Callahan-LevyC. M.MesséL. A. (1979). Sex differences in the allocation of pay.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 433–446.
9.
CejkaM. A.EaglyA. H. (1999). Gender-stereotypic images of occupations correspond to the sex segregation of employment.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 413–423.
10.
CrosbyF. (1982). Relative deprivation and working women. New York: Oxford University Press.
11.
DesmaraisS.CurtisJ. (1997a). Gender and perceived pay entitlement: Testing for effects of experience with income.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 141–150.
12.
DesmaraisS.CurtisJ. (1997b). Gender differences in pay histories and views on pay entitlement among university students.Sex Roles, 37, 623–642.
13.
DiekmanA. B.EaglyA. H. (2000). Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1171–1188.
14.
DiekmanA. B.EaglyA. H.MladinicA.FerreiraM. C. (2005). Dynamic stereotypes about women and men in Latin American and the United States.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 209–226.
15.
EaglyA. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social-role interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
16.
EaglyA. H.SteffenV. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of men and women into social roles.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735–754.
17.
EaglyA. H.WoodW. (1982). Inferred sex differences in status as a determinant of gender stereotypes about social influence.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 915–928.
18.
EaglyA. H.WoodW.DiekmanA. B. (2000). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: A current appraisal. In EckesT.TrautnerH. M. (Eds.), The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 123–174). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
19.
FiskeS. T.XuJ.CuddyA. J. C. (1999). (Dis)respecting versus (dis)liking: Status and interdependence predict ambivalent stereotypes of competence and warmth.Journal of Social Issues, 55, 473–489.
20.
GlickP.FiskeS. T.MladinicJ. L.SaizJ. L.AbramsD.MasserB. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763–775.
21.
GlickP.WilkK.PerreaultM. (1995). Images of occupations: Components of gender and status in occupational stereotypes.Sex Roles, 32, 565–582.
22.
GoodmanJ.LoftusE. F.MillerM.GreeneE. (1991). Money, sex, and death: Gender bias in wrongful death damage awards.Law and Society Review, 25, 263–285.
23.
GrahamM. E.WelbourneT. M. (1999). Gainsharing and women's and men's relative pay satisfaction.Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 1027–1042.
24.
GreenwaldA. G. (1975). Consequences of prejudice against the null hypothesis.Psychological Bulletin, 82, 1–20.
25.
GreenwaldA. G.McGheeD. E.SchwartzJ. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480.
26.
GreenwaldA. G.NosekB. A.BanajiM. R. (2003). Understanding and using the implicit association test: I. An improved scoring algorithm.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 197–216.
27.
HamiltonD. L.TrolierT. K. (1986). Stereotypes and stereotyping: An overview of the cognitive approach. In DovidioJ. F.GaertnerS. L. (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 127–163). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
28.
HogueM.YoderJ. D. (2003). The role of status in producing depressed entitlement in women's and men's pay allocations.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 330–337.
29.
JacksonL. A. (1989). Relative deprivation and the gender wage gap.Journal of Social Issues, 45, 117–133.
30.
JacksonL. A.GardnerP. D.SullivanL. A. (1992). Explaining gender differences in self-pay expectations: Social comparison standards and perceptions of fair pay.Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 651–663.
31.
JacksonL. A.GrabskiS. V. (1988). Perceptions of fair pay and the gender wage gap.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18, 606–625.
32.
Johannesen-SchmidtM. C.EaglyA. H. (2002). Diminishing returns: The effects of income on the content of stereotypes of wage earners.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1538–1545.
33.
JostJ. T. (1997). An experimental replication of the depressed-entitlement effect among women.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 387–393.
34.
JostJ. T.BanajiM. R.NosekB. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo.Political Psychology, 25, 881–919.
35.
JuddC. M.ParkB. (1993). Definition and assessment of accuracy in social stereotypes.Psychological Review, 100, 109–128.
36.
KamanV. S.HartelC. E. J. (1994). Gender differences in anticipated pay negotiation strategies and outcomes.Journal of Business and Psychology, 9, 183–197.
37.
MajorB. (1987). Gender, justice, and the psychology of entitlement. In ShaverP.HendrickC. (Eds.), Review of personality and social psychology: Sex and gender (Vol. 7, pp. 124–148). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
38.
MajorB.ForceyB. (1985). Social comparisons and pay evaluations: Preferences for same-sex and same-job wage comparisons.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 393–405.
39.
MajorB.McFarlinD. B.GagnonD. (1984). Overworked and underpaid: On the nature of gender differences in personal entitlement.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1399–1412.
40.
MartinB. A. (1989). Gender differences in salary expectations when current salary information is provided.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 87–96.
41.
MooreD. (1994). Entitlement as an epistemic problem: Do women think like men?Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 665–684.
42.
MorrisonT. G.BellE. M.MorrisonM. A.MurrayC. A. (1994). An examination of adolescents' salary expectations and gender-based occupational stereotyping.Youth & Society, 26, 178–193.
43.
NagelS. S.WeitzmanL. J. (1971). Women as litigants.Hastings Law Journal, 23, 171–198.
44.
OlsonJ. M.RoeseN. J.ZannaM. P. (1996). Expectancies. In HigginsE. T.KruglanskiA. W. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 211–238). New York: Guilford.
45.
PelhamB. W.HettsJ. J. (2001). Underworked and overpaid: Elevated entitlement in men's self-pay.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 93–103.
46.
RudmanL. A.GlickP. (1999). Feminized management and backlash toward agentic women: The hidden costs to women of a kinder, gentler image of middle managers.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1004–1010.
47.
RudmanL. A.GoodwinS. A. (2004). Gender differences in automatic in-group bias: Why do women like women more than men like men?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 494–509.
48.
SnyderM.TankeE. D.BerscheidE. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656–666.
49.
U.S. Department of Labor. (2007). Highlights of women's earnings in 2006 (No. 1000). Washington, D.C.: Author.
50.
UhlmannE. L.BrescollV.PizarroD. (2007). The motivated use and neglect of base rates.Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 284–285.
51.
WeichselbaumerD.Winter-EbmerR. (2005). A meta-analysis of the international gender wage gap.Journal of Economic Surveys, 19, 483–511.
52.
WhiteM. J.KruczekT. A.BrownM. T.WhiteG. B. (1989). Occupational sex stereotypes among college students.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 34, 289–298.
