Gender Differences in Working Memory in Humans Tested on a Virtual Morris Water Maze

This study explored the contents of stereotypes of women who choose to breastfeed, and how these stereotype attributes differ between men and women. Undergraduate students participated in exchange for modest course credit by completing a series of questionnaires either in-class or via the Internet. All participants completed several questionnaires, including a social behavior inventory, a measure of attitudes toward and embarrassment related to breastfeeding, and a questionnaire designed to assess knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding. Analysis on 147 participants (60 men and 87 women) utilized Mann-Whitney U tests to compare responses of men and women. Men associated fewer positive and significantly more negative personality traits with women who breastfeed compared to women who do not breastfeed. Women tended to attribute characteristics related to morality (e.g., church-going, conscientious) to women who breastfeed, while men attributed significantly more characteristics related to attractiveness and sexuality (e.g., good physical shape, promiscuous) to women who breastfeed.