When sharing problems they’re facing, many women in the U.S. are often greeted with “mansplaining.” We refer to mansplaining as “unresponsive advice,” or when the advice-giver offers unsolicited, generic, and heavy-handed advice.
Interestingly, although it more often comes from men, women sometimes report receiving this kind of “unresponsive” advice from women, too. So, we wondered how women tend to react to receiving unresponsive advice and whether the advice-giver’s gender matters.
The Effects of Unresponsive Advice on Women
We first wanted to understand the classic scenario in which women receive unresponsive advice from men. In the spring of 2020, we invited 431 women to have text-based conversations with men about stress related to the pandemic. Sometimes, we asked the men to ask their women conversation partners open-ended questions, such as “What’s stressing you out most these days?” But other times, we asked the men to give scripted unresponsive advice, such as “You should take breaks from watching or listening to news stories.”
After the conversations, we asked the women participants how they felt about themselves and about the interaction. Women who were given unresponsive advice felt less respected, less powerful, and less trusting compared to women who were asked questions. In other words, women felt worse when getting unresponsive advice by men.
Does the Advice-Giver’s Gender Matter?
To understand whether the advice-giver’s gender mattered, we conducted an experiment in which 1,619 women imagined experiencing something stressful at work. Specifically, they imagined that their boss told them that they were not on track for a promotion.
Then, around half of these women read about a colleague who gave novel suggestions when asked for advice. In this scenario, the colleague said, for example, “It might help to have a discussion with your supervisor.” But the other half of these women instead read about a colleague giving unsolicited, generic, heavy-handed advice. That is, the colleague said, for example, “You really ought to have a discussion with your supervisor, you know.” This advice-giving colleague was a man around half the time, and a woman the other half.
Like our other experiment, women felt worse when receiving unresponsive advice from a man. Surprisingly, though, the results weren’t any different when the unresponsive advice came from another woman. In other words, it felt bad to get unresponsive advice, regardless of whether it came from a male or female colleague. At least when it came to feeling respected, the advice-giver’s gender did not matter.
We did find something unique to female-male interactions, however. When the unresponsive advice came from a man, women expected to feel as though they were seen through the lens of a negative stereotype. In other words, unsolicited, generic, heavy-handed advice from men tended to make women more concerned that gender had played a role in the interaction. The same didn’t happen when the unresponsive advice came from another woman.
In short, what’s unique to men mansplaining is that women experience what psychologists call “stereotype threat.” Unresponsive advice makes women feel concerned that they are being seen through the lens of a negative stereotype.
Conversations and Gender Inequality
In the United States, men are often afforded more status than women. One subtle but potentially powerful way that this gender-related inequality is perpetuated is through everyday conversations between men and women. Our research supports this.
Women say that men give them unsolicited, generic, and heavy-handed advice more often than other women do. This type of advice makes women feel less respected and trusted and, when given by men, makes them especially aware of negative female stereotypes. In the future, we hope to study men and those outside of the gender binary and look at the causes and downstream consequences of mansplaining.
This research provides insight into how people can interact more respectfully. When someone comes to you with a problem, you might consider leading with a question and taking time to listen instead of responding immediately with advice, even if the advice is well-meaning and seems valuable. In this way, you can elevate your counterpart’s respect and, possibly, make them feel like their unique self is valued rather than remind them of negative stereotypes.
For Further Reading
Santoro, E., & Markus, H. R. (2024). Is mansplaining gendered? The effects of unsolicited, generic, and prescriptive advice on U.S. women. Psychological Science, 09567976241268630. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241268630
Santoro, E., & Markus, H. R. (2023). Listening to bridge societal divides. Current Opinion in Psychology, 54, 101696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101696
Cheryan, S., & Markus, H. R. (2020). Masculine defaults: Identifying and mitigating hidden cultural biases. Psychological Review, 127(6), 1022. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000209
Hamedani, M. G., Markus, H. R., Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2024). We built this culture (so we can change it): Seven principles for intentional culture change. American Psychologist 79(3), 384–402*.*https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001209
Erik Santoro is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Columbia Business School. His research investigates how conversations can bridge and sometimes widen, divides rooted in identity and ideology.
Hazel Rose Markus is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a Faculty Director of Stanford SPARQ. Her research investigates people as culturally shaped shapers, exploring how the self regulates behavior and is shaped by the social world.