Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Psychology
Advisor
Harold Goldstein
Committee Members
Charles Scherbaum
Joel Lefkowitz
Samuel Johnson
Logan Watts
Subject Categories
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Keywords
Leadership, Gender, Race, Stereotyping
Abstract
Although Asian Americans and women tend to be relatively well represented in professional roles, they continue to be underrepresented in executive-level leadership positions. This paper examined a combination of factors believed to contribute to the shortage of Asian American and female leaders in organizations – in particular, descriptive and prescriptive stereotyping. Thus, the current study examined how participants responded to an Asian American or White, male or female applicant being considered for a leadership role. All targets were qualified, but varied on levels of warmth and/or dominance. Overall, it was hypothesized that the Asian American and female candidates behaving counterstereotypically (e.g., dominantly) would be subject to backlash, in the form of more negative affective reactions and lower leadership ratings compared to similar White and/or male candidates. A study was conducted online with White male participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Ultimately, the results of the study did not support the predicted hypotheses. A discussion of the results and potential reasons for these findings are included.
Recommended Citation
Lim, Jane I., "Perceptions of Asian American and Female Leadership Candidates: The Impact of Descriptive and Prescriptive Stereotyping" (2017). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2293