Most women will be familiar with the phenomenon of mansplaining – having a bloke explain something in a condescending, oversimplified manner.
But women can be just as bad at providing unsolicited advice, according to a study.
Researchers asked more than 1,800 women to read scenarios in which either a man or a woman gave a co-worker of equal standing uninvited advice around getting promoted or instead asking supportive questions.
The participants were asked to report how they thought they would feel if they were the person in the scenario.
Analysis revealed that it didn’t matter whether the ‘mansplaining’ advice came from a man or a woman.
Either way, it made the participants imagine that they’d feel less respected, that they were of a lower status, and that they had a smaller sense of power as well as self.
The only difference was that when the advice came from a woman, the participants were less likely to feel that stereotypes about their own gender had probably influenced the interaction.
The researchers, from Columbia Business School and Stanford University, published their findings in the journal Psychological Science.
Most women will be familiar with the phenomenon of mansplaining – having a bloke explain something in a condescending, oversimplified manner. But women can be just as bad at providing unsolicited advice, according to a study (stock image)
‘We initially thought women would feel less respected, powerful and trusting when receiving unresponsive advice from men than from women,’ they told the PsyPost website.
‘But unsolicited, generic and prescriptive advice had similar negative effects on these outcomes regardless of whether it was from men or from women.
‘What was unique to women getting unresponsive advice from men was that women felt greater anticipated stereotype threat.’
The researchers said ‘responsive’ advice – characterised by understanding and validating the other person’s needs – could be more valuable during conversations.
Further research could focus on why people feel the need to give this type of advice, and to study how mansplaining might influence women’s motivation and achievement in school and work, they added.
