Risk Taking on Gender-Typed Tasks Following an Assignment Based on Sex

Abstract

Ninety traditional-aged Caucasian college students (44 men and 46 women) were assigned to be group leaders according to either ambiguous or gender-based criteria. They were then presented with two dilemmas that had been prerated as masculine or feminine by a separate sample (N 87) and were asked to judge their willingness to pursue a risky decision. Women made more cautious decisions following a leadership assignment based on gender than they did on an assignment based on ambiguous criteria. However, this occurred only when the task was gender typed as masculine. A gender-based assignment had no effect on risk taking by women attempting a task gender typed as feminine. Although men were more cautious at feminine tasks than at masculine tasks, the type of assignment criterion did not alter their risk-taking judgment.