Abstract
This national study of United States women (N=522) took an evolutionary approach to explaining Hostility towards Women and Rape Myth Acceptance, two constructs loading on a latent variable called Hostile Femininity. Everyday Sadism, Suspiciousness, Cognitive and Perceptual Dysregulation, and a lack of Eccentricity were expected to predict Hostile Femininity. Callousness and Manipulativeness were expected to predict Everyday Sadism. These hypotheses were largely supported; however, Withdrawal, not Cognitive and Perceptual Dysregulation, predicted Hostile Femininity in the final model. The structural equation model accounted for 64% of the variance in Hostile Femininity. It is proposed Hostile Femininity may represent motives for female intrasexual competition, an evolutionary concept explaining same-sex aggression. The hostile feminine profile emerging from this study is that of a conservative, conventional, and introverted woman who deeply distrusts other females. She likely enjoys using tactics such as gossip and social ostracism against other females, including women who have reported being sexually assaulted.
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