This projects test how the framing of gender inequality (as women's disadvantage or men's advantage) and the use of prolific metaphors such as the "glass ceiling" influence how people think about gender inequality in the workplace and how they respond to it.
More specifically, we test whether descriptions of inequality that put the focus on women (by saying that they are underrepresented or by using the glass ceiling or labyrinth metaphors) lead to a stronger focus on women in participants' explanations of gender inequality as well as in the interventions they suggest or support than a focus on men (by saying that men are overrepresented or by using metaphors such as the old boys' club).
At the same time, using a metaphor should make the issue of gender inequality seem more important.
This study is a replication of a first study in which we found the predicted results as well as a number of additional results.
The study pre-registered here as well as the respective first study have been accepted for publication as Bruckmüller, S., & Braun, M. (2020). One group’s advantage or another group’s disadvantage? How comparative framing shapes explanations of, and reactions to, workplace gender inequality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, special issue on Language Challenges in the 21st Century.