When Gender Fits Self-Regulatory Preferences: The Impact of Regulatory Fit on Gender-Based Ingroup Favoritism

Females are perceived to have less power than males. These differences in perceived power might render different self-regulatory strategies appropriate: Women should (as members of other low-power groups) care about security, whereas men should (as members of other high-power groups) strive for accomplishment. These regulatory implications of gender provide the basis for regulatory fit between individuals' gender and their regulatory focus. Higher fit should lead to stronger gender-based ingroup favoritism: Prevention-focused females and promotion-focused males were expected to show more ingroup favoritism than both sexes in the respective other regulatory focus. According to the regulatory fit hypothesis, this effect should occur for evaluative-but not for stereotype-based ingroup favoritism. Three studies supported these hypotheses.