The present study was conducted in Turkey (Bugay, Delevi, & Mullet, 2019). A total of 3,235 voluntary, non-remunerated students (aged 18-25, 70% females) from 16 universities (see Table 1) participated. Gender-related factors were mesured using the Turkish version (Ozkan & Lajunen, 2005) of the 30-item form of the Bem Sex Roles Inventory (Bem, 1981). The femininity subscale includes traits that are perceived as characteristic of women (e.g., emotional, sympathetic, and understanding), and the masculinity subscale traits that are perceived as men’s ones (e.g., assertive, strong personality, and dominant). Biological sex was also included as a factor.

Table 1 Table 1 Number of participants from each university. Scores on the ATW scale, and on two of the Individualism-Collectivism subscales. Support for conservative politics for each geographic area.

Place was measured using a geographical index -- the longitude of the city in which participants were studying, and a socio-political index -- the local level of support for the conservative candidate at the last presidential elections of 2014; that is, at the time the study was conducted (see Table 1).

Culture was measured using the Turkish version (Wasti & Erdil, 2007) of the 37-item form of the Individualism-Collectivism scale (Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, & Gelfand, 1995). This scale is composed of four subscales: vertical individualism, vertical collectivism, horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism. Vertical individualists are motivated to attain high social statuses in society, and having it recognized by others (e.g., “It is important that I do my job better than others”). Vertical collectivists also emphasize social status but they are more compliant with authority, and even ready to give up personal goals (e.g., “Family members should stick together, no matter what sacrifices are required”). Horizontal individualists prefer to view themselves as equal to others (e.g., “I'd rather depend on myself than on others”). Horizontal collectivists tend to value interdependence between people in addition to equality (e.g., “If a coworker gets a prize, I would feel proud”).

Finally, attitude to women, the criterion, was measured using the Turkish version (Delevi & Bugay, 2013) of the 12-item short form of the ATW Scale (Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973). This scale measures normative expectations regarding the roles and behaviors of women in daily life (e.g., “Both husband and wife should be allowed the same grounds for divorce”).

The survey took place during regular classes. Completion lasted approximately 10–15 minutes. Some of the mean results are shown in Table 1.

To determine which measurements should be included in the model of combination of factors, a stepwise regression analysis was conducted with ATW as the criterion and all other variables as predictors. Age, grade and socio-economic status were also included as predictors. Four predictors were selected, biological gender (β = -0.39), local level of political conservatism (β = -0.24), vertical collectivism (β = -0.23), and horizontal individualism (β = -0.15), F(4, 3230) = 367.55, p < 0.001. They explained 31% of the total variance in ATW scores (R = 0.56). No other predictor added any significant part of explained variance.

Functional measurement (FM) is most often used to characterize information integration rules used by people in judgment tasks such as quickly assessing the weight of an (unknown) object from its volume and its density before lifting it in order to prepare for adequate body posture (Léoni, Mullet, & Chasseigne, 2002). In order to test integration rules, several situations are usually created by orthogonally varying the levels of the factors implicated in the situation, here volume and density. These situations are presented to participants who are asked to assess weight in each case using continuous scales ranging from low weight to high weight. Factorial plots are created with participant’s assessement on the y-axis, volume levels on the x-axis, and density levels as curves (see Figure 1). The pattern of responses observed allows diagnosing the type of integration rule used. Parallelism of curves is the signature of additive-type rules (summation rule or equal-weight averaging rule). Divergence of curves is the signature of multiplicative-type rules (muliplication rule or differential weight averaging rule). Convergence of curves usually indicates averaging processes (Anderson, 1982).

Figure 1

Assessed weight is on the y-axis, density levels are on the x-axis. The three curves correspond to three density levels. The central panel shows the normative pattern; that is, the pattern that results from the application of the weight = volume x density physical law. The left panel shows a pattern that is often observed among young pupils. The right panel shows a pattern that has been observed among few participants in previous studies.

As in previous studies (for a review, see Bugay et al., 2019; Twenge, 1997), gender impacted on ATW. Males expressed more traditional views than females. The male-female difference between ATW scores corresponded to 17% of the range of the response scale. As expected, place -- level of political conservatism in the area -- had also a strong impact on ATW. The difference between scores observed in Izmir and Erzurum corresponded to 20% of the range of the scale. Place and gender added their effect on ATW to the point that the average female student in Erzurum expressed more traditional views regarding women than the average male student in Izmir.

As expected, culture had an impact on people’s ATW, but this impact differed from one aspect of culture to the other. It was essentially attributable to vertical collectivism (emphasis on hierarchy and inequality in society) and, to a more limited extent, to horizontal individualism (viewing oneself as equal to others) (Zhang, Mandl, & Wang, 2011). Culture and gender interacted. The impact of culture was stronger among males than among females. The model of combination of effects can therefore be expressed as:

(1)

Equation 1 suggests a more general model that could be tested in additional studies:

(2)

In conventional IIT studies, the exact nature of the + and operators in Equation (1) could be determined in subsequent studies by (a) varying the number of factors included in the experiment, and (b) comparing judgments given in complete information situations (with all three factors present) and judgments given in incomplete information situations (with only two of the three factors present) (Anderson, 1982). In studies of the present type, manipulations of this kind cannot be considered. Combination of the gender and place factors, for example, does not take place in the internal world of the human brain. They occur in the external world. Their nature is, therefore, different. Divergence of curves in Figure 2 means that the effect of culture is truly potentiated by gender, in the same way as the effect of sleeping pills on may be potentiated by alcohol intake.