The Effect of Pink/Blue Clothing on Implicit and Explicit Gender-Related Self-Cognition and Attitudes Among Men

Abstract

In many cultures worldwide, one stereotype emerges: Pink is associated with girls and blue is associated with boys. Based on the enclothed cognition theory, the present study examined the effects of men's pink clothing on gender-related self-cognition and sex-role attitudes. Male Japanese participants wore either a pink or blue coat and completed a gender stereotype Implicit Association Test, a self-rating scale, and gender attitude scales (a measure of egalitarian sex-role attitude and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Results showed that among participants with low self-esteem, the implicit self–feminine association was stronger in the pink condition than in the blue condition. On the other hand, participants with high self-esteem explicitly associated themselves more with power-oriented traits compared with interpersonal-oriented traits when they wore a pink coat compared with those who wore a blue coat. Additionally, participants in the pink condition expressed stronger egalitarian sex-role attitudes and weaker benevolent sexism than those in the blue condition. We propose that men's pink clothing is a means of diminishing gender stereotypes and traditional sex-role attitudes.