Measuring Gender Stereotypes Among Japanese University Students Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP): A Systematic Replication
摘要
The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) is an implicit measure increasingly used to examine gender stereotypes. While prior studies have primarily focused on domain-specific stereotypes (e.g., in academic majors or occupations), relatively few have investigated general gender stereotypes using IRAP. The present study systematically replicated the procedures of Drake et al. (2018) and employed the IRAP to assess general gender stereotypes among Japanese university students, who live in a society where gender inequality remains a pressing issue. In the IRAP procedure, participants responded to pairings of binary gender labels (female and male) and trait descriptors (feminine and masculine) by selecting “true” or “false” under instructions emphasizing rapid responding. Participants exhibited response patterns that were primarily pro-congruent with gender stereotypes, reflected in a consistent tendency to affirm matched gender label–trait pairings (i.e., female–feminine and male–masculine). No significant gender differences were found. Nevertheless, we discussed the possibility of stronger stereotype-consistent responses among male participants in pairings involving male labels, as implied by the current data. Correlational analyses were also conducted between the IRAP performances and scores on an explicit measure of egalitarian attitudes, although no clear correlations were found in the majority of analyses. Overall, the results generally replicated those of Drake et al. (2018), demonstrating stereotype-consistent responses in a Japanese sample. The potential influence of procedural differences between the current and original studies is also discussed.