Women’s Decision-Making: A Latent Profile Analysis of Agency, Communion, and Fear of Negative Evaluation

What the paper says

This research tries to determine how personal traits (“The Big Two”) and social expectations maintained through social sanctions (fear of negative evaluation) can guide women’s decision-making process. We aimed to identify distinct psychological profiles among women based on three constructs—agentic traits, communal traits, and fear of negative evaluation— and examine how these profiles are associated with different patterns of decision-making. Among 345 Spanish female participants from general population, we established three women’s profiles: (1) traditionally feminine self-assured (high communal, moderate agentic traits, and low fear of negative evaluation); (2) traditionally feminine approval-oriented (high communal, moderate agentic traits, and high fear of negative evaluation), and (3) non-traditionally feminine self-assured (low communal, high agentic traits, and low fear of negative evaluation). Compared to Profiles 1 and 3, women in Profile 2 made decisions characterized by an avoidant and anxious style, with low self-confidence and social influence, high contextual sensitivity; and were less inclined to make social decisions that go against the expected. These findings contribute to social role theory by demonstrating that women’s decision-making cannot be understood only through agency and communion, but must also consider fear of negative evaluation as a key process through which anticipated social sanctions reinforce adherence to gender roles. Practically, the results suggest that reducing evaluative pressures may promote women’s freedom of choice in shaping their decisions. At a societal level, the study emphasizes the important role society plays in challenging persistent social sanctions and reducing the gender inequalities that influence women’s everyday decisions.