Gender-emotion stereotypes are context specific

Previous research has documented that specific emotions are differentially associated with women and men. For example, sadness and happiness are stereotypically associated with girls and women, whereas anger and pride are stereotypically associated with men. The present research qualifies these previous findings by establishing that gender-emotion stereotypes are context specific. Twenty-four scenarios were developed that depicted a target person over- or underreacting to happy, sad, or angry events in either an interpersonal or an achievement context Thirty-three female and 44 male Caucasian undergraduates judged how characteristic these reactions were for women and men. The results demonstrated that overreactions to happy and sad events were more characteristic of women in the interpersonal context, but were more characteristic of men in the achievement context. Overreactions to angry scenarios however were more characteristic of men, regardless of context. The implications of the context-dependent nature of gender-emotion stereotypes for men and women are discussed.