Philosophers and neuroscientists address central issues in both fields, including morality, action, mental illness, consciousness, perception, and memory. The results of this study are further discussed in relation to gender-leader category congruence and leadership. That is, for men supervisors, the highest ratings were associated with high communion ratings of both men and leader categories.

However, a general incongruence effect was found between male communion stereotypes and leader communion stereotypes leading to lower evaluations for male supervisors. Supervisor evaluations were highest when respondents held traditional gender stereotypes, not when they were congruent with the leader prototype. The results did not support RCT’s hypothesis about the negative effects of incongruence of women and leader category. The results generally supported ILT, supervisor evaluations were highest when perceived supervisor characteristics exceeded the respondents’ leader category expectations. A strict congruence effect was not found for any of the models. Using polynomial regression analysis, the category congruence hypothesis was tested using two theories as interpretive frameworks: implicit leadership theory (ILT) and role congruity theory (RCT). Six hundred eighty participants were recruited from MTurk to rate men, women, and leaders on agency and communion. Researchers employing Schein’s (1973, 1975) paradigm, ubiquitously conclude that the greater conceptual distance between leaders and women compared to leaders and men is problematic for women in leadership roles. Thus, the illusory mind–body divide may arise from the very workings of the human mind. These observations (from Western participants) cannot establish universality, but the association of Dualism with ToM suggests its roots are psychological. A final analysis confirms that males’ ToM scores are lower, and ToM scores further correlate with embodiment intuitions (in Experiments 1–2).

Experiment 3 further shows that males are less inclined towards Empiricism-a putative byproduct of Dualism. Experiments 1–2 show that males indeed perceive the psyche as more embodied-as more likely to emerge in a replica of one’s body, and less likely to persist in its absence (after life). If ToM begets Dualism, then males should exhibit weaker Dualism, and instead, lean towards Physicalism (i.e., they should view bodies and minds alike). Past research has shown that males are poorer mind-readers than females. Here, we ask whether Dualism emanates from within the human psyche, guided, in part, by theory of mind (ToM). A large literature suggests that people are intuitive Dualists-they tend to perceive the mind as ethereal, distinct from the body.

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