How fundamentally different do people generally think men and women are? Gender essentialism refers to beliefs that women and men have distinct, innate, and fixed biological essences that differentiate them from each other. Exposure to popularized neuroscience research may shape such views. We examined whether exposure to scientific evidence for gender differences or similarities in the brain affects beliefs about gender essentialism, and indirectly shapes sexism and justification of gender inequality, using samples from Turkey. Study 1 (n = 414 undergraduates) showed that exposure to evidence on brain similarities led to lower gender essentialist beliefs, which, in turn, negatively predicted sexism and justification of gender inequality. Unexpectedly, exposure to evidence on gender differences did not lead to an increase in gender essentialist beliefs. Although men scored higher than women on all measures, the indirect effects were significant for both men and women. In Study 2 (n = 119 online community respondents), we found indirect effects of exposure to evidence of brain similarities on justification of gender inequality. We discuss the implications of our findings for challenging gender essentialist views among students and the general public through exposure to research on gender similarities and increased critical thinking about scientific research evidence.

人们通常认为男人和女人有什么根本不同？性别本质主义是指这样一种信念，即男人和女人拥有与众不同的，与生俱来的固定的生物本质，从而使它们彼此区别。接触普及的神经科学研究可能会塑造这种观点。我们使用来自土耳其的样本，研究了暴露于性别差异或大脑相似性的科学证据是否会影响有关性别本质主义的信念，并间接塑造性别歧视和性别不平等的理由。研究1（n = 414名本科生）表明，接触大脑相似性证据导致较低的性别本质主义信念，进而对性别歧视和性别不平等的合理化做出了负面预测。出乎意料的是，接触有关性别差异的证据并没有导致性别本质主义信仰的增加。尽管在所有方面，男性得分均高于女性，但对男性和女性而言，间接影响均显着。在研究2（n = 119个在线社区受访者），我们发现暴露于大脑相似性证据对性别不平等合理性的间接影响。我们通过暴露于性别相似性研究和对科学研究证据的批判性思考，讨论了研究结果对学生和公众挑战性性别本质主义观点的影响。