Sexual overperception bias: The effects of romantic love priming and uncertain message on person perception

Abstract

In modern society, gender equality is respected. However, the entanglement of gender relations remains a problem. In this study, we investigated the possibility that activation of thoughts about romantic love increases the salience of stereotypical gender role expectations, outside of consciousness, which causes a gender difference in the interpretation of ambiguous messages. In Study 1, in which participants carefully analyzed the scenario via conscious processing, and in Study 2, in which participants spontaneously responded to real-life situations via nonconscious processing, male participants in the romantic love priming conditions, compared to male participants in the control conditions, were more likely to respond to ambiguous messages with more positive emotions, and evaluated the message sender as being more attractive. However, such bias was not observed among female participants. Instead, they showed higher distrust toward ambiguous messages. These results show that even if the awareness of gender equality is raised, the activation of thoughts about romantic love makes stereotypical gender role expectations more salient, which leads to a difference in interpretation of ambiguous messages between males and females.