AUTHOR=Wang Siqi , Wang Jinjin , Guo Wenmin , Ye Hang , Lu Xinbo , Luo Jun , Zheng Haoli 

TITLE=Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00403

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2019.00403

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=Stereotypes exist in the interactions between different social groups, and gender stereotypes are more prevalent. Previous studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the social cognition that plays an important role in gender stereotypes, but the specific causal effect of the mPFC remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to identify a direct link between the mPFC and gender bias. Implicit stereotypes were measured by the gender implicit association test (IAT), and explicit prejudice was measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). We found that male and female participants had different behavioral and neural correlates of gender stereotypes. Anodal tDCS significantly reduced male participant's gender D-IAT scores, while the stimulation had an insignificant effect in female participants, compared with cathodal and sham stimulation. The reduction in male participants’ gender bias mainly resulted from the decrease in reaction time between congruent and incongruent blocks. Regarding the explicit bias measurement, male and female participants had distinct attitudes, but tDCS had no effect on ASI. Our results revealed that the mPFC played a causal role in controlling implicit gender stereotypes, which were consistent with previous observations and complement past lesion, neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies, and suggested that males and females have different neural basis for gender stereotypes.