Status Characteristics theory (SCT) argues that individuals’ gender attitudes are inconsequential in the status process. SCT states that, since the status process is subconscious, conscious beliefs and attitudes are irrelevant. Because of this argument, SCT research rarely examines the components of individuals and treats them instead as the byproducts of the social environment. This treatment neglects the individual in favor of the socially agreed upon expectations that are attached to status characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to create an argument as to why gender attitudes are important for the status process and to test this argument. Data was collected from 400 individuals using Amazon’s MTurk and then analyzed using a series of different models and tests. The results of this vignette experiment provide evidence for a complex relationship between expectations and attitudes. I discuss the implications of this relationship and argue that further research should be conducted.
