Situational Malleability of Gender Schema: The Case of the Competitive Sport Context

In this research we examined the situational malleability of gender schema and specifically the association between competitive sport and masculinity at the intraindividual level. Based on Deaux and Major's (1987) interactive assumption, we predicted that a competitive sport context would activate the masculine dimension in gender schema. Participants were 64 French undergraduate students who evaluated themselves on the Bem Sex Role Inventory in general, in a competitive sport context, and in a cinema context. In addition to femininity and masculinity scores in each context, response latencies were also collected. The results indicated that participants responded higher and faster on masculine items when the competitive sport context was presented, showing that this association is well anchored in gender schema.