The Social Media Sexist Content (SMSC) Database: A Database of Content and Comments for Research Use

Abstract

We introduce the Social Media Sexist Content (SMSC) database, an open-access online stimulus set consisting of 382 social media content items and 221 comments related to the content. The content items include 90 sexist posts and 292 neutral posts. The comment items include 75 sexist comments along with 238 neutral comments. The database consists of a broad range of topics including lifestyle, memes, and school posts. All posts were anonymized after being retrieved from publicly available sources. All content and comments were rated across two domains: degree of sexism and emotional reaction to the post. In terms of sexism, the posts were rated along three dimensions of gender bias: Hostile Sexism, Benevolent Sexism, and Objectification. Participants also provided their emotional reactions to the posts in terms of feeling Ashamed, Insecure, and/or Angry. Data were collected online in two separate studies: one rating the content and the other rating the comments. The sexism and emotion ratings were highly reliable and showed the posts displayed either sexism or neutral content. The SMSC database is beneficial to researchers because it offers updated social media content for research use online and in the lab. The database affords researchers the ability to explore stimuli either by content or by ratings, and the database is free to use for research purposes. The SMSC is available for download from hannahbuie.com.