The Behavioral Science Guys | One Simple Skill to Curb Unconscious Gender Bias

What if your boss and colleagues discriminated against you just for speaking up assertively? Unfortunately, this is reality for women in the workplace.
The BS Guys' latest research shows that when a woman spoke in a way that was forceful and assertive, people judged her as incompetent and a poor leader. However, when a man was equally as forceful, he wasn’t judged as harshly as his female coworker.
So what can women do when suffering from an unfair judgment?
The BS Guys wondered if adding a few words prior to the forceful statement would reduce the bias. Our hypothesis was that a brief statement explaining why you’re about to pound the table would change people’s judgement of you pounding the table. The results were dramatic. Women who explained their intent before going to content dramatically decreased others’ negative judgments.
So, next time you’ve got something tough to say, don’t hold your tongue and don’t sugarcoat your feelings; instead explain your intent so your audience will understand why you’re being so forceful.

[@kateronney5543]

The big question here : what about the COMPARATIVE graph after adjusting the language ? Are women and men equal now ? Because if they are not, it is not helping with gender bias at all; it is just helping with general communication.

[@trigrrug]

That was assertive and forceful? Damn that's like my nice voice.

[@zayvictory1901]

Ray Mack Right lol...

[@VanishedDecoy]

But isn't the disparity theoretically the same if both the man and woman use the method of stating intention? I guess I don't understand how the method really relates to gender bias specifically.

[@Samuel115s]

Wow. I have actually never noticed this before in my own thinking.

[@stephaniebowman7474]

Thanks for continuing to share the powerful skills taught through your researched based books and training materials!

[@miroslavakavgic7066]

For woman negative perception reduced from around 17.5 to 15%, if I interpreter chat correctly ? So dramatically might sound like overstatement. Still wondering how much it improved for man?

[@m1ter743]

Can we have the source ? Like the link to the scientific article ?

[@sanny27]

This is obviously something just for the American context. In many other cultures, this type of aggressive or mildly put assertive behavior would not be appropriate for both men and women.

[@sarahblack4708]

Awesome video! The only thing it is missing is more examples of statements that explain your intent. Could you post a bunch of suggestions?

[@davidt8274]

The psychology of it if broken down into its component parts, would point to a different conclusion. The conclusion in this case is that being 'assertive' effectively requires a lower tone of voice, a tone of comfort, of breaking rapport. It is downward going and indicates the intent of stating a thought without intent for others to have to follow. There is no neediness in 'convincing', or 'winning', hence carries no intent of harm. Both genders can have similar results. The thing is that, there's a reality that reinforces through COMMON experience in society that guys are naturally less caring about the need to please others/convince (aka sound bitchy... ima create hell if things don't go my way), than girls, and girls are better at playing a perfect game (makes no mistakes, show no weaknesses, change and adapt) than guys. Both sides have their advantages in different situations, and are happiest working their own ways. Now to re-apply this principle back to the situation, the girl has to talk like the guy (his tone, his tempo (don't rush ideas in attempts to overwhelm), his facial expressions, his relatively non-dependent attitude on the outcome) in order to create that same level of comfort. This experiment needs to be repeated with the above in mind, and even have a guy talk the way the girl was talking (rushing, moving head all over the place, upward inflection in tone (aka sounding needy... which many guys do as well, and are not viewed as competent either)).

[@joyrajarathnam7446]

you didnt show how people rated the man after he shared his 'intent" . if you did a comparison after the intent for both female and male, thats when you actually know if the bias exists .

[@rmsf1072]

Well, it seems that from what I've observed, that's the normal way to talk in Italy, at least in our part of Italy, defusing many situations that could be difficult to talk about right from the moment you open your mouth. Add appropriate body language and some repetition instead of ums or spaces, and you've got people listening... ;-)

[@AdelleRamcharan]

Yes, we are hardwired as human beings to react differently to upset women because...we had MOTHERS as a child. And mom getting angry at us, in a primal sense, could mean death. Videos like this are completely ridiculous. If I had just assumed every issue in my life on the fact that I was a woman (something I can't change), I would never have bothered to improve myself. This is the opposite of empowerment.

[@jarhead3571]

We are hardwired to fuck but that doesn't mean you can just fuck anyone you want. I get horny plenty of times but don't go around asking for sex, I put up with it by either improving myself socially to get myself laid or deal with not getting laid that moment instead of being fragile and needing some empowerment.

[@pseudonamed]

Dad getting mad at us could mean death too. what's your point?

[@davidt8274]

Btw, eye-rolling = incompetent in the view of anyone. She needs to stop eye-rolling.

[@mmabbr]

There was a big difference in the tone and delivery of the 2 actors used. The woman sounded snappy, whereas the guy had a slower pace suggesting a calmer state.

[@suzanoslin3272]

That's so funny. That is the point they are making.

[@user-vr4ih6jg3n]

Buddies, the disparity wasn't that great and may be attributed to other factors, like the persons in question. The man looked more professional and genuine. Not because he's a man, but the way he dressed and talked. The bias is personal not a gender issue.

[@JACK-gi8kd]

wassup?

[@kateronney5543]

Well… The gender bias is true everywhere . But what you consider forceful is very culture dependent ! Have a look at the book « the culture map ». In the US, what the people said in the video would definitely be considered agressive, but not in the Netherlands for example.

[@erik878]

Its dehumanizing to study people in this way. Psychologists have poor intentions, they just carve out a niche for their con, they try and look useful by nitpick every little thing they want the world to walk on egg shells when there is a bigger picture people are missing, women's absolute equality is not the biggest priority in the world right now

[@hehheh1204]

Tone/attitude is what caused her to be judged.

[@JessBlake2]

There are hundreds of studies about this. Women and men are judged differently. A paper is rated differently based on the gender of the name. Same is true with identical resumes. These guys did a sloppy study but gender bias is well documented.

[@katherineboyd4031]

This really doesn't seem at all to offer "how to curb gender bias" but does offer (non gender-specific) how to reduce incidence of negative judgment. [sigh] At least 2 dudes are acknowledging implicit gender biases.

[@DontreadPimpBoy]

Really Katherine? Really...

[@kimjongun4000]

Well that was a load of BS

[@Bruhusoris]

the "BS" GUYS LOL BULL SHIT