The effect of self-consciousness on the expression of gender views

This study examines the effect of public self-consciousness on the expression of gender-role attitudes. It was hypothesized that high publics were more likely to alter their gender-view expressions to meet situational expectations than were high privates and that, under an activated state of public self-attention, people were more likely to alter their gender views. Tested in 156 college students in a quasi-experiment conducted in classrooms, these hypotheses were supported only in work-related gender-role attitude expressions, but not in domestic gender-view expressions. The experimental manipulation of public self-consciousness in a classroom setting might have made work-related identities more salient. Correspondingly, participants were more responsive to regulating work but not domestic gender views.