Blame it on her ‘baby brain’? Investigating the contents of social stereotypes about pregnant women's warmth and competence

• Published in: British journal of social psychology 2023-04, Vol.62 (2), p.692-707
• Main Authors: Pownall, Madeleine, Conner, Mark, Hutter, Russell R. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blame; Brain; Competence; Empathy; Female; Gender stereotypes; Humans; Infants; Male; Mathematics; Mothers; Perceptions; Pregnancy; Pregnant Women; Social Perception; Stereotype Content Model; Stereotypes; Stereotyping; Sympathy; warmth; Women
• ISSN: 0144-6665; 2044-8309
• DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12587

The Stereotype Content Model proposes that social stereotypes broadly exist along two dimensions: warmth and competence. This framework has been used to investigate the contents of stereotypes of gendered groups in a range of contexts. However, it has not been extensively applied to perceptions of pregnant women. This is important, given how pregnant women are typically framed by society to have ‘baby brain’ or reduced competence. Therefore, we investigated the contents of social stereotypes of pregnant women. In Study 1, participants (N = 590) rated a target group (pregnant women) and thirteen other comparison groups on perceptions of warmth (compassion, empathy and comfort) and competence (mathematics ability, logic and memory). Pregnant women were generally stereotyped to have low competence and high warmth, relative to other groups. Study 2 (N = 54) then descriptively investigated the wider contents of stereotypes related to pregnant women, new mothers, men and women using a trait generation task. Generated traits were coded within the dimensions of warmth and competence. This showed, again, that pregnant women were assigned traits related to warmth and poor competence. Taken together, these studies confirmed that perceptions of low competence and ‘baby brain’ in pregnancy is broadly held by a non‐pregnant sample.