Abstract
In this study, we investigated the effects of primed power on sexual objectification of Caucasian and Asian men and women. As in previous studies, sexual objectification was assessed using an inversion paradigm with face–body compound stimuli. Previous work has shown that participants primed to power do not show the typical drop in recognition performance for inverted face–body compound stimuli, suggesting that they process these stimuli in terms of their individual features, in a manner akin to objects, and quite different from the way in which faces and bodies are normally processed (i.e., configurally). Caucasian male and female participants were primed to high or neutral-power before engaging in an old/new recognition task involving sexualized face–body compound images of Caucasian and Asian men and women. Participants primed to high-power showed a decreased inversion effect for Caucasian models of the opposite gender, but not for Asian models. Thus, power exerts different effects on this specific type of social perception, depending on the ethnic origin of the target. We discuss our results in the context of the extant literature on power and with reference to media stereotyping of Caucasians and Asians.
Highlights
Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) provides a framework for understanding the experience of being a woman in a sociocultural context that sexually objectifies the female body
We investigated how power influences the cognitive processes associated with the sexual objectification of Caucasian and Asian men and women
According to interpretations of the inversion effect paradigm in studies of sexual objectification (Bernard et al, 2012; Bernard et al, 2015; Civile & Obhi, 2015), the lack of a significant inversion effect suggests that Caucasian models of the opposite gender are processed featurally in an object-like manner, whereas the strong inversion effect obtained for Asian models suggests configural processing, more typical of face and body recognition
Summary
Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) provides a framework for understanding the experience of being a woman in a sociocultural context that sexually objectifies the female body. Gervais, Vescio, Förster, Maass, and Suitner (2012) extended the notion of configural and featural processing from the face/body and object recognition literature to sexual objectification These concepts have highlighted differences in the perception of male and female sexualized stimuli at a basic cognitive level. This inversion effect suggests that sexualized images of men are perceived in a configural way Both male and female participants showed a reduced not significant inversion effect for sexualized images of women (similar performance in recognizing upright and inverted sexualized images of women) indicating that sexualized women are processed featurally just like objects. This suggests that the sexual objectification showed by the increased object-like perceptual processing (i.e., featural processing), might be of kinds of objectification often discussed in contemporary sociocultural theories (e.g., Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
