| Sumario: | Two experiments extended the computers are social actors paradigm by examining when and why people are more likely to evince gender-typed responses to computers. In both experiments, participants played a trivia game with a computer, which they thought generated random answers. When the computer gender was manifested in cartoon characters, participants attributed greater competence and exhibited greater conformity to the male than female computers, but such differences emerged only when they were simultaneously engaged in multiple tasks (Experiment I). To elucidate what accounts for gender stereotyping of computers, Experiment 2 tested 2 competing explanations, depletion of cognitive resources and reduced attention, by varying the modality of computer output (speech vs. text). The advantages of the male computer observed in Experiment 1 dissipated when the computer provided speech output, demanding greater processing attention. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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