Implicit Gender Bias: Associations with Trial Outcomes for Women Accused of Murder

Abstract

Women accused of murdering their partner when faced with intimate partner violence (IPV) may be perceived in a unique light. However, there is little research on whether people's implicit and explicit gender bias plays a role in how they react or perceive women accused of murdering their partner. Therefore, this research aims to see an association between explicit and implicit gender bias in determining guilt in murder cases involving women suspects. The methods used for this research are an online survey, an implicit association test, and an ambivalent sexism inventory test. These tests will be put into the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Some key findings were that the absence of Implicit Association Test and the discrepancy between the two explicit biases were linked to a less severe outcome. In contrast, only one case with a high level of all three gender biases was linked to severe outcomes. These results could be due to more psychologically rigid, naïve, or one-sided mindsets regarding the participants' perceptions of women.