The Persistence of Gender Stereotypes: Evidence from the Found-in-Translation Task

Many prestigious jobs and recognized social roles are often associated with men, which may lead to discrimination and underrepresentation of women. Psychological explanations of these inequalities could be drawn from role congruity theory, stereotypes, and male-as-norm bias. We conducted four experiments to examine gender mistranslation of female scholars, singers, and models using a novel Found-in-Translation Task. In Studies 1 (N = 671) and 2 (N = 288), participants translated texts about scientists with unspecified gender from English to Polish. Male scientists were rarely mistranslated, whereas female scientists were mistranslated over 80% of the time, even in feminized fields and despite encouragement to use the internet. Study 3 (N = 203) with singers showed moderately lower rates. It was only in Study 4 (N = 202) featuring models that these rates were much lower. These findings demonstrate persistent gender stereotypes and the male-as-norm phenomenon.