Mansplaining explained: The role of the better-than-average effect and the interpretation bias in acts and accusations of mansplaining

Abstract

Mansplaining, the phenomenon of men degradingly explaining something to women, is widely recognized in popular culture but has received little scholarly attention so far. To address this gap, we conducted two studies to test the hypotheses that the better-than-average effect and the interpretation bias can help explain why mansplaining occurs and is remarked. Study 1 (N = 204) did not show that men think they know more than women, nor that men are more likely to offer an explanation in conversations. Study 2 (N = 247) showed that women are more likely to interpret an explanation as insulting than men, regardless of whether the explanation was given by a man or a woman. The current study provides empirical evidence to give mansplaining its proper conceptual grounding in communication theories and shows that communication biases are a viable avenue to understand mansplaining and similar communication phenomena.

Keywords

• mansplaining
• better-than-average effect
• interpretation bias
• opposite-gender interactions
• miscommunication