EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPOSURE TO COUNTERSTEREOTYPIC FATHERS ON REDUCING IMPLICIT FATHER AND MOTHER STEREOTYPES IN JAPAN

Lai et al. (2014) compared 17 intervention effects on implicit racial prejudice and concluded that exposure to counterstereotypic exemplars was most effective. Therefore, this study examined whether exposure to counterstereotypic fathers can reduce the implicit stereotype that ‘fathers should work outside the home and mothers should keep the house’. The Go/No-Go Association Task (GNAT, Nosek & Banaji, 2001) was conducted among undergraduates (N=44; Men = 26, Women = 18). The results indicated that, among menparticipants in the control condition, more fathers than mothers implicitly associated with work, and more mothers implicitly associated with home; however, such differences were not significant among men participants in the counterstereotypic fathers condition. Thus, for men, exposure to counterstereotypic fathers can reduce the implicit father and mother stereotypes. Further research that can generalise the findings must be conducted.