She Loves Him, She Loves Him Not

Abstract

In two studies, we examined how romantic attachment style relates to women’s sexism toward men. Specifically, we applied structural equation modeling and mediation analyses to the responses of over 500 self-reported heterosexual women. Study 1 included 229 women who answered questionnaires tapping attachment anxiety and avoidance, ambivalent sexism toward men, romanticism, and interpersonal trust. We conducted Study 2 as a replication, changing questionnaire order to gauge the robustness of results, using a new sample of 273 women. In general, women’s attachment anxiety predicted ambivalent sexism (both benevolence and hostility) toward men, whereas women’s attachment avoidance predicted univalent hostility (and lower benevolence) toward men. Romanticism mediated attachment style’s relationship to benevolence toward men, whereas lower interpersonal trust mediated attachment’s relationship to hostility toward men. The results suggest that, for women (as for men), sexist attitudes toward members of the other sex have roots in attachment style and associated worldviews. Better understanding of women’s ambivalence toward men in romantic relationships may help to inform marital therapy.