Model-observer similarity and task-appropriateness in learning from video modeling examples: Do model and student gender affect test performance, self-efficacy, and perceived competence?

In video modeling examples, a human model demonstrates and explains how to perform a task. The model-observer similarity (MOS) hypothesis predicts that learners who perceive themselves to be more similar to the model will learn more from the examples and show greater self-efficacy gains. Findings have been mixed, however; possibly because perceptions of task-appropriateness might affect learning and self-efficacy independently of similarity views. Therefore, we examined whether the effectiveness of modeling examples on troubleshooting electrical circuits, a task typically perceived as more appropriate for males than females, would differ as a function of the gender of the model and the observer. Secondary education students (N = 159) watched two video modeling examples, either by a male or a female model. The example content was kept equal. A manipulation check confirmed that students perceived same-gender models as more similar to them than opposite-gender models. They also perceived the task as more appropriate for males than females. Males performed somewhat better than females and showed higher confidence gains; however, model gender did not affect students' test performance, self-efficacy and perceived competence gains, effort investment, learning enjoyment, or perceived explanation quality. Our findings suggest that there is no need to take the model's gender into account when designing video modeling examples.