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Stereotypes About Men's and Women's Intuitions: A Study of Two Nations

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Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Published online on

Abstract

Since the Enlightenment, rationality has been set above intuition and associated with male thought, while intuition has become linked with female thought. Do these stereotypes still exist today? If they do, are they the same for different domains of life? And are they stable across age groups, gender, and culture? We investigated these questions in two countries that differ in women’s traditional roles, using representative national samples of 1,016 people in Germany and 1,002 people in Spain. Participants reported their beliefs about men and women’s intuitions for nine personal and professional domains. The main results are as follows: Substantial stereotypes about intuition exist, are highly domain-specific rather than general and, strikingly, do not differ in sign and size between age groups. Moreover, in every domain, substantial in-group preferences exist: Females believe more strongly in the intuitive power of women, and males in that of men. Across domains, stereotypes about gender-specific intuition are more frequent in Germany, even though Spain has a stronger Catholic tradition and political history of conservative gender roles.