Error-related negativity varies with the activation of gender stereotypes

The error-related negativity (ERN) was suggested to reflect the response-performance monitoring process. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the activation of gender stereotypes influences the ERN. Twenty-eight male participants were asked to complete a tool or kitchenware identification...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 2008-09, Vol.442 (3), p.186-189
Main Authors: Ma, Qingguo, Shu, Liangchao, Wang, Xiaoyi, Dai, Shenyi, Che, Hongmin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiology
Conflict
Conflict (Psychology)
Error-related negativity (ERN)
Event-related potential (ERP)
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender Identity
Gender stereotypes
Humans
Male
Reaction Time
Stereotyped Behavior - physiology
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:The error-related negativity (ERN) was suggested to reflect the response-performance monitoring process. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the activation of gender stereotypes influences the ERN. Twenty-eight male participants were asked to complete a tool or kitchenware identification task. The prime stimulus is a picture of a male or female face and the target stimulus is either a kitchen utensil or a hand tool. The ERN amplitude on male-kitchenware trials is significantly larger than that on female-kitchenware trials, which reveals the low-level, automatic activation of gender stereotypes. The ERN that was elicited in this task has two sources—operation errors and the conflict between the gender stereotype activation and the non-prejudice beliefs. And the gender stereotype activation may be the key factor leading to this difference of ERN. In other words, the stereotype activation in this experimental paradigm may be indexed by the ERN.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/j.neulet.2008.06.080