Sex of researchers and sex-typed communications as determinants of sex differences in influenceability: A meta-analysis of social influence studies

The outcomes of 148 studies of whether men and women differ in how easily they are influenced are examined meta-analytically. The analysis indicates that (a) women are more persuasible and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve surveillance by the influencing agent. In situations not involving surveillance, women are also more conforming, but this effect is vulnerable to the "file-drawer" problem discussed by R. Rosenthal (1979). Effect-size estimates show that the sex difference in influenceability is generally small. The present article also describes a study with 83 male and 118 female undergraduates that supported the hypothesis that sex of researchers is a determinant of the sex difference. 79% of the authors of influenceability studies were male, and men obtained larger sex differences in the direction of greater persuasibility and conformity among women. In studies authored by women, there was no sex difference. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).