Hairstyle gender stereotypes and their impact on character evaluation in the Chinese context

Hairstyle gender stereotypes and their impact on character evaluation in the Chinese context | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Hairstyle gender stereotypes and their impact on character evaluation in the Chinese context Zhihao Wang, Li Wang, You Jian This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This research explores hairstyle gender stereotypes (HGS) in China and their effects on character evaluation. Study 1 (pilot-experiment) selected 10 gender-typical hairstyles from a common Chinese hairstyle list, which were used to develop the HGS questionnaire. Study 2 examined HGS at both exogenous and implicit levels: Experiment 1 (N = 238) employed the above-mentioned questionnaire, while Experiment 2 (N = 64) used an Implicit Association Test (IAT), revealing stable HGS across both levels, with women exhibiting more consistent attitudes. Study 3 assessed the impact of HGS on evaluations of warmth and competence. Experiment 3 (N = 322) showed that characters with stereotype-consistent hairstyles were rated more favorably, with female participants displaying greater tolerance toward stereotype-inconsistent characters, whereas Experiment 4 (N = 125) confirmed that HGS continued to implicitly influence evaluations of male participants but not female participants. Overall, the study demonstrates that HGS remain stable and significantly shape character evaluations, offering new insights into the role of gendered hairstyles in social cognition, with important implications for social cognition, gender studies, and cross-cultural communication. Social science/Psychology Social science/Sociology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterials.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 02 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 05 Nov, 2025 Editor invited by journal 07 Jun, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 14 May, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 14 May, 2025 First submitted to journal 24 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6521886","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":544181224,"identity":"d98e7f96-5401-41f5-a3c3-9dcd3f371ef1","order_by":0,"name":"Zhihao Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4UlEQVRIie3RoQ7CMBCA4TZNqgqzt0DAoYuZIuFV2iyZGgQ5QcLIyCoAv8dAYheSqeInt0fAIUigaMg2HKK/7tfctQjZbH8YHV/ySj5mm21C8kpE63bSB+rzOg5wolKfV7poJyNgnlvHF6wOeuLWO9JhsIG5XJ4J6WUhjWRMkaP2opkM37toSt1sUZTyPESgr6dmggKfC8rYNFsGpbGIw6KNhB4ICjAvQ28lU9KBgCEy5RwftIe6EVaYwbQQ2DwyCF2w1l3GKsnre/QU2Hzl7R6tR446NpOP2G/HbTabzfa1F2LuTaed4fCFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Sport University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhihao","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":544181225,"identity":"dc3698ca-bc44-4853-9cc3-d7e04ae95685","order_by":1,"name":"Li Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Sport University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Li","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":544181226,"identity":"8c22c028-1e04-49a2-b373-58691bd49f19","order_by":2,"name":"You Jian","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Sport University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"You","middleName":"","lastName":"Jian","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-24 14:53:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95911041,"identity":"06a8e492-660a-4312-9b99-ff2fae0e934b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"json","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":4927,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"b1baeaa6ca7e4675997d9e61146c5db4.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/935c06492e26b9831dc260a2.json"},{"id":95911048,"identity":"db0f085f-f046-4cca-bd3a-5727ecb98653","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":178611,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"F","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/e746cf0a2f4749801efef95c"},{"id":96244615,"identity":"5877ecac-68f4-4bc3-9efa-98e3fad727f1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:18:58","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1602326,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HairstylegenderstereotypesandtheirimpactoncharacterevaluationintheChinesecontext1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/035b2c3a992379d22c4b16b8.pdf"},{"id":96243416,"identity":"91a4f6b9-8e90-4ee6-98fd-56faf5a013a0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:16:17","extension":"zip","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":15725164,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterials.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/24c9b6f550b853eb16e4081c.zip"},{"id":96243123,"identity":"360c3207-4b2b-48a4-be6b-138ae917ddfc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:15:36","extension":"","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":178611,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Fpng","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/1b550a4db217f716b1836622.png"},{"id":95911043,"identity":"e4f2e238-2608-43e3-a55a-bd35ee26191e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":51751,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure10.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/c7b1a0825cdd014d03ef0d52.png"},{"id":95911045,"identity":"4e86d427-9efc-4d30-a06c-6ae0bee5fff2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":55103,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure11.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/71f497a1f68d6743676c8def.png"},{"id":96243192,"identity":"b4e45cd2-49d9-47a1-9c16-aa429e0183f8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:15:50","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":59239,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/383493477b661d69617d1175.png"},{"id":96242642,"identity":"44a88095-d743-452d-975a-1fc7ce81204b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:13:54","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":69273,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/31813a3e595e070018ae2c17.png"},{"id":96242696,"identity":"36d79330-dfd1-4112-ad16-8e254009b8ae","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:14:04","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":55691,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/497f624b1f8397d792a403be.png"},{"id":96243023,"identity":"502c829a-2103-463a-b81b-141f036d72aa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:15:15","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":58582,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/6a676b6e785eef5b5f5d4273.png"},{"id":95911052,"identity":"f971b328-df39-4cca-9182-167ef9cbe2dc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":58535,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/91458b54703d3519db46a5a6.png"},{"id":96242628,"identity":"96c92b50-4f14-43b4-97e1-5d33dddc7e0a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:13:50","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":59116,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/c2362af486a97062ac25556c.png"},{"id":95911050,"identity":"fd63075e-4789-458e-afbb-9afa5d3d5ec8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":13,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":60274,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure8.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/45153059324dd26648991343.png"},{"id":95911053,"identity":"894ac10c-1698-40c8-a502-774ed6ce956b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":14,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":182624,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"figure9.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/20ec22cd59313302f4af88e3.png"},{"id":96244117,"identity":"ab247cda-e3a4-46b2-a493-0b6a6992eb75","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:17:46","extension":"png","order_by":15,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":338512,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"table1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/37c31af7d13e9d155942106f.png"},{"id":95911054,"identity":"4faebee8-50e3-4338-9a33-5a531adef8be","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:04","extension":"png","order_by":16,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":47807,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"table2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/8c9c9976746b7008ba214bfd.png"},{"id":95911056,"identity":"ed0f5983-6490-4595-b157-86f536e391dd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:05","extension":"png","order_by":17,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":458220,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"table3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/737a9d3dd8827f94f8d9cfbd.png"},{"id":95911057,"identity":"ba94165f-128f-4c9c-af42-71d2b09f7e79","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:05","extension":"png","order_by":18,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":73774,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"table4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/091e4f0ff314cc027567c168.png"},{"id":96242665,"identity":"bd651306-ec86-4946-9f70-2ee2ca472665","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:13:55","extension":"xml","order_by":19,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":161244,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"b1baeaa6ca7e4675997d9e61146c5db41structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/b2e4d147ef35a98790509b04.xml"},{"id":96255310,"identity":"1bc6be1e-cf68-41ad-b02c-b7bd6f78a2f0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:48:24","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1071184,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HairstylegenderstereotypesandtheirimpactoncharacterevaluationintheChinesecontext1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1_covered_0af5a9a7-9287-4a5e-9e47-d256109e7f31.pdf"},{"id":95911061,"identity":"6b16740a-afc8-443f-afc9-d1d1e6e2c1b7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-14 10:27:05","extension":"zip","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":15725164,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterials.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6521886/v1/d6285f49a3d7a06e9ae9b2a1.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Hairstyle gender stereotypes and their impact on character evaluation in the Chinese context","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"This research explores hairstyle gender stereotypes (HGS) in China and their effects on character evaluation. Study 1 (pilot-experiment) selected 10 gender-typical hairstyles from a common Chinese hairstyle list, which were used to develop the HGS questionnaire. Study 2 examined HGS at both exogenous and implicit levels: Experiment 1 (N = 238) employed the above-mentioned questionnaire, while Experiment 2 (N = 64) used an Implicit Association Test (IAT), revealing stable HGS across both levels, with women exhibiting more consistent attitudes. Study 3 assessed the impact of HGS on evaluations of warmth and competence. Experiment 3 (N = 322) showed that characters with stereotype-consistent hairstyles were rated more favorably, with female participants displaying greater tolerance toward stereotype-inconsistent characters, whereas Experiment 4 (N = 125) confirmed that HGS continued to implicitly influence evaluations of male participants but not female participants. Overall, the study demonstrates that HGS remain stable and significantly shape character evaluations, offering new insights into the role of gendered hairstyles in social cognition, with important implications for social cognition, gender studies, and cross-cultural communication.","manuscriptTitle":"Hairstyle gender stereotypes and their impact on character evaluation in the Chinese context","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-14 10:26:59","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6521886/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-12-02T18:40:49+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"322490087359718532693049422069626521289","date":"2025-11-12T22:48:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-11-05T08:56:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-06-07T04:07:30+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-05-15T03:43:22+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-05-15T03:43:05+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","date":"2025-04-24T14:43:12+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"103abfc9-b1dd-4a1f-8115-253aad7035f1","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 14th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":57898246,"name":"Social science/Psychology"},{"id":57898247,"name":"Social science/Sociology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-14T10:27:00+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-14 10:26:59","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6521886","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6521886","identity":"rs-6521886","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}