Social acceptance in gender dilemma : Preference on treating male patients versus female patients

Abstract: Based on prior research, people tend to be more prone to save women before saving men, and this thesis presents two studies examining the social acceptance of having these different preferences. Participants (N=805) were randomly assigned to one of two studies, and within each study they were assigned to one of two conditions (allocation condition or choice condition). The participants first read a description of two medical helping project in which one project can treat only men while the other one can treat only women. Participants then read and rated six targets’ answers (three male targets and three female targets), based on their first impression (level of warmth and competence) of targets expressing a preference towards men, women, an equal preference, or no preference. In the first study, the projects presented the same number of treated patients (three patients), and in the second study, the project treating male patients was higher (four patients) than the project treating female patients (three patients). Results showed that a female preference are viewed as a more socially accepted preference than a male preference, but only when the number of treated patients in each project are equal. Also, when male targets express a female preference, they are seen as more competent than female targets with a female preference, but only when they express their preference in ratings of the project. When the number of treated patients differed between the projects, a female preference is not viewed as a more socially accepted preference than having a male preference, there were also no significant difference between how men and women were perceived in their competence level.