Why women really are seen as the fairer sex

THEY are often called the fairer sex and it seems the stereotype is hard to escape.

Scientists have shown that we automatically link lighter or fairer colours with female names and qualities and darker shades with more masculine attributes.

As a consequence, most assume that a waiter carrying two glasses of wine would almost certainly give the red to the man and the white to the woman, say the Dutch psychologists.

Researcher Gün Semin began by showing a group of volunteers a selection of male and female names printed on a grey background. Some were in white text and others in black. The men and women had only three-quarters of a second to decide whether each name was male or female.

The results, presented at the British Science Festival, were

‘It was a very strong effect’

clear cut. Professor Semin, of Utrecht University, said: ‘I have never seen such a beautiful result. The male names in black were processed significantly faster than those in white.

‘And the reverse was true for the female names. Those in the white typeface were processed much faster. It was a very strong effect.’

In another experiment, volunteers were shown adjectives before the names flashed up.

The words ‘soft’, ‘submissive’ and ‘weak’ sped up the processing of female names, while ‘assertive’, ‘strong’ and ‘weighty’ aided the sorting of male ones.

Volunteers were also asked to imagine a waiter bringing a couple’s order to the table. Eighty per cent said that if he had a glass of red wine and one of white, he would give the red to the man and the white to the woman.

Similarly, most assumed an espresso would have been ordered by the male and a cappuccino by the female.