Female Targets Research Articles

Whose misbehavior is inexcusable—And which one? Job‐related discrimination against ethnic minority and majority women

AbstractBased on the model of intersectional invisibility, we tested the consequences of work‐related misbehavior for women of Turkish and German descent (i.e., misbehavior involving mistakes that are stereotypically associated with masculine or feminine traits, eliciting negative evaluations). Across a series of four preregistered experiments (Ns = 746, plus two pre‐registered experiments in an Additional Supplement), we investigated evaluations of female targets in a male‐typed, highly qualified job context. We focus on exclusion and promotion decisions. A single‐paper meta‐analysis substantiates findings across samples who have different experiences regarding racism and in personnel selection. Our findings reveal a nuanced picture: Misbehavior associated with stereotypically feminine traits led to more negative consequences for Turkish women than for German women, resulting in more frequent exclusion and less frequent promotion for Turkish women. In contrast, misbehavior associated with stereotypically masculine traits led to more favorable outcomes for Turkish than German women. Thus, revealing a complex relationship between type of misbehavior and ethnicity, we identify leader prototypes as an explanatory mechanism, rather than aversive racism or shifting standards. Results suggest that Turkish women are discriminated against most for showing stereotypically feminine behavior confirming gendered racialized steretoypes, but may experience less backlash when showing counter‐stereotypical behavior than German women. We find double standards in evaluations of highly qualified women of Turkish versus German descent, with interactions with the type of misbehavior suggesting complex interplays of gender, ethnicity, and information provided about the individual in career advancement and exclusion.

Band importance for speech-in-speech recognition in the presence of extended high-frequency cues.

Band importance functions for speech-in-noise recognition, typically determined in the presence of steady background noise, indicate a negligible role for extended high frequencies (EHFs; 8-20 kHz). However, recent findings indicate that EHF cues support speech recognition in multi-talker environments, particularly when the masker has reduced EHF levels relative to the target. This scenario can occur in natural auditory scenes when the target talker is facing the listener, but the maskers are not. In this study, we measured the importance of five bands from 40 to 20 000 Hz for speech-in-speech recognition by notch-filtering the bands individually. Stimuli consisted of a female target talker recorded from 0° and a spatially co-located two-talker female masker recorded either from 0° or 56.25°, simulating a masker either facing the listener or facing away, respectively. Results indicated peak band importance in the 0.4-1.3 kHz band and a negligible effect of removing the EHF band in the facing-masker condition. However, in the non-facing condition, the peak was broader and EHF importance was higher and comparable to that of the 3.3-8.3 kHz band in the facing-masker condition. These findings suggest that EHFs contain important cues for speech recognition in listening conditions with mismatched talker head orientations.

Many Mickles Make a Muckle: Evidence That Gender Stereotypes Reemerge Spontaneously Via Cultural Evolution.

We explore whether societal gender stereotypes re-emerge as social information is repeatedly passed from person to person. We examined whether peoples' memories of personality attributes associated with female and male social targets became increasingly consistent with societal gender stereotypes as information was passed down social transmission chains. After passing through the memories of just four generations of participants, our initially gender-balanced micro-societies became rife with traditional gender stereotypes. While we found some evidence of the re-emergence of gender stereotypes in Experiment 1, we found the effects were stronger when targets appeared in a feminine-stereotyped occupational context (Experiment 2), and a masculine-stereotyped occupational context (Experiment 3); conversely, the re-emergence of gender stereotypes was attenuated when targets appeared in a single gender context (Experiment 4). The current findings demonstrate that gender schematic memory bias, if widely shared, might cause gender stereotypes to be maintained through cultural evolution.

High-dimensionality structure in English-language personality type-nouns.

Past applications of the lexical approach to type-noun personality structures have yielded different results compared with those generated for adjectival personality structures, since then new methods have arisen for identifying robust higher-dimensionality structure in data. This research aims to identify an optimal taxonomy of English language type-nouns. Current study reanalyzed 372 type-nouns from a previous study emphasizing robustness across methodological variations (original vs. ipsatized data, oblique vs. orthogonal rotations, convergence between male and female target ratings) to determine a replicable but more comprehensive model of personality type-noun structure. A 13-factor original-data oblimin-rotated solution was determined to be the most robust model, except for a one-factor model that was far less comprehensive and informative; an original-data 32-factor oblimin-rotated solution was also fairly robust. Although each of the Big Five adjectival markers indicated a large correlation with one or more type-noun factors; nearly half of the 13 type-noun factors lacked such large correlations with the Big Five. A high-dimensionality approach thus indicated that type-nouns capture substantial content beyond the Big Five. A comparison with the character-types described by an ancient philosopher (Theophrastus) signified that some granular type-noun dimensions may have stability across multiple millennia.

“She Should be Smart Enough To Know, Hey, These Things Can Happen”: Identifying Men’s Perceptions, Attitudes and Beliefs About Sexual Aggression Toward Women in Drinking Venues and The Implications for Prevention

Sexual aggression (SA) by men toward women, including harassment and unwanted sexual touching, is ubiquitous in drinking venues. Focus groups with 38 male volunteers aged 19-26 were used to articulate men’s perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs (PABs) related to SA in drinking venues for future development of a comprehensive questionnaire. Three cross-cutting themes relevant to prevention emerged from discussions structured using a 6-dimensional theoretical model: drinking venues culture with normative acceptance of SA as harmless fun, gender scripts that hold female targets responsible for SA, and alcohol attributions that reduce blame for intoxicated men perpetrators and increase blame for women targets.

Intergroup processes and the happy face advantage: How social categories influence emotion categorization.

There is abundant evidence that emotion categorization is influenced by the social category membership of target faces, with target sex and target race modulating the ease with which perceivers can categorize happy and angry emotional expressions. However, theoretical interpretation of these findings is constrained by gender and race imbalances in both the participant samples and target faces typically used when demonstrating these effects (e.g., most participants have been White women and most Black targets have been men). Across seven experiments, the current research used gender-matched samples (Experiments 1a and 1b), gender- and racial identity-matched samples (Experiments 2a and 2b), and manipulations of social context (Experiments 3a, 3b, and 4) to establish whether emotion categorization is influenced by interactions between the social category membership of perceivers and target faces. Supporting this idea, we found the presence and size of the happy face advantage were influenced by interactions between perceivers and target social categories, with reliable happy face advantages in reaction times for ingroup targets but not necessarily for outgroup targets. White targets and female targets were the only categories associated with a reliable happy face advantage that was independent of perceiver category. The interactions between perceiver and target social category were eliminated when targets were blocked by social category (e.g., a block of all White female targets; Experiments 3a and 3b) and accentuated when targets were associated with additional category information (i.e., ingroup/outgroup nationality; Experiment 4). These findings support the possibility that contextually sensitive intergroup processes influence emotion categorization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Increasing brand desire through communication strategies: TAG Heuer and the female customer

The female target group is becoming increasingly important for both the luxury market and the luxury watch market. As a result, brands that have so far focused predominantly on the male target group must develop strategies to attract the female target group to their brand and products. Only with the help of a clear brand management and positioning strategy of the brand in the luxury watch market can a desirable brand be established. The aim of this paper is to investigate communication measures and position strategies that can contribute to enhancing the desirability of the TAG Heuer brand specifically within the female target group. To answer the underlying research questions, a quantitative consumer survey was conducted and completed by 135 participants. Furthermore, this paper aims to identify trends for the luxury goods industry that could bear relevance to the TAG Heuer brand in the future. The findings of the paper suggest that both events and collaboration with other brands, as well as collaboration with female influencers and testimonials, can increase the desirability of the TAG Heuer brand among the female target group. In addition, limited and special editions have great potential to increase the desirability of the brand. In the long run, the positioning of the TAG Heuer brand in the luxury segment is recommended. Overall, the paper provides important insights into the consumer behaviour of the female target group in the luxury watch market and suggests the measures that may be taken to increase the desirability of the TAG Heuer brand.

Social evaluative implications of sensory adaptation to human voices.

People form social evaluations of others following brief exposure to their voices, and these impressions are calibrated based on recent perceptual experience. Participants adapted to voices with fundamental frequency (f o; the acoustic correlate of perceptual pitch) manipulated to be gender-typical (i.e. masculine men and feminine women) or gender-atypical (i.e. feminine men and masculine women) before evaluating unaltered test voices within the same sex. Adaptation resulted in contrastive aftereffects. Listening to gender-atypical voices caused female voices to sound more feminine and attractive (Study 1) and male voices to sound more masculine and attractive (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b tested whether adaptation occurred on a conceptual or perceptual level, respectively. In Study 3a, perceivers adapted to gender-typical or gender-atypical voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in opposite directions for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. Findings showed weak evidence that evaluations differed between conditions. In Study 3b, perceivers adapted to masculinized or feminized voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in the same direction for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. In the feminized condition, participants rated male targets as more masculine and attractive. Conversely, in the masculinized condition, participants rated female targets as more feminine and attractive. Voices appear to be evaluated according to gender norms that are updated based on perceptual experience as well as conceptual knowledge.

Relationship status moderates sexual prejudice directed toward lesbian women but not gay men

ABSTRACT To determine whether relationship status moderates sexual prejudice, we compared heterosexual men and women’s self-reported social distancing toward gay and lesbian targets who varied in relationship status (coupled, single, no information). Relationship status of gay male targets did not affect responses (Study 1): heterosexual men reported increased social distancing toward gay compared to heterosexual male targets, whereas women did not. Similarly, in Study 2, heterosexual men reported increased social distancing toward lesbian compared to heterosexual female targets, but women did not, and men reported decreased social distancing toward single lesbian women. Working from an affordance management approach, Study 3 replicated Studies 1 and 2, testing potential mediators of effects. In particular, heterosexual men reported increased social distancing toward gay male targets, compared to responses from heterosexual women. Moreover, heterosexual women reported increased social distancing toward single, compared to coupled, lesbian targets, mediated through perceptions of undesired sexual interest from the target. This work demonstrates the nuanced nature of sexual prejudice and provides further evidence of the role of perceptions of undesired sexual interest in prejudiced responses toward lesbian and gay individuals.

Mitigating the adverse impact of coworker incivility on organizational deviance: The self‐regulatory roles of trait conscientiousness and gender

AbstractDespite the current knowledge about the influence of peers in the workplace, we still know relatively little about the boundary conditions that may strengthen or weaken the adverse impact of coworker‐initiated incivility on targets' behavioral outcomes. Drawing upon self‐regulation impairment theory, this study aims to shed light on the impact of coworker incivility on targets' organizational deviance (e.g., working slower and taking longer breaks) and proposes that trait conscientiousness and gender can serve as self‐regulatory resources that jointly buffer its adverse impact. Survey data were collected from 401 employees nested in 83 teams in a large public organization in Thailand. The hypotheses were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling. Two‐way interaction analyses revealed that the effect of coworker incivility on supervisor‐rated organizational deviance was less pronounced among those with high levels of conscientiousness and among female targets. Three‐way interaction effects on both self‐rated and supervisor‐rated organizational deviance were also observed. Specifically, the results showed that targets with high levels of conscientiousness, regardless of gender, showed lower tendencies to engage in organizational deviance. Conversely, among targets with low conscientiousness levels, men were most likely to engage in organizational deviance, while women were also prone to do so, albeit to a lesser extent. The present findings emphasize the importance of considering individual differences in self‐regulation when addressing the detrimental effects of incivility.

From Sexualized Media Consumption to Salary Negotiation: The Relation Between Chronic Self-Objectification Processes and Women’s Negotiation Intentions

ABSTRACT Despite the advancement in women’s conditions in the past fifty years, women are still the targets of forms of oppression that span from sexual objectification to gender economic inequality, which, among other factors, is linked to challenges that women may face with wage negotiation. Bridging these two research areas, in the present correlational study (N = 552), we took the female target perspective and investigated whether everyday sexualized media consumption may be indirectly linked with Italian women’s negotiation intentions in a working scenario (i.e. salary request, negotiation probability, salary raise negotiation). We hypothesized that this association would be mediated by internalization of mainstream beauty ideals, chronic self-objectification, and subsequent lower self-attribution of the fundamental social dimensions of competence, agency, and morality. Path analyses supported the indirect path model on all the negotiation behaviors via self-attribution of competence; a significant indirect path via self-attribution of morality was also found on women’s negotiation probability. Implications for gender economic inequality as well as possible interventions are discussed.

Yes, No, Maybe So: The Effects of Relationship Status on Perceptions of Inferred Consent.

Despite the notion that sexual consent is either granted or refused, its communication can sometimes be ambiguous. This uncertainty stems from the tendency to rely on implicit, nonverbal cues to indicate consent. Without clear, explicit communication, people might be encouraged to rely upon contextual information when assessing whether a sexual encounter was consensual. Perceived levels of intimacy and familiarity in a relationship might influence these perceptions, such that prior intimacy might lead to ambiguously communicated consent being interpreted as more consensual. Gender roles can dictate the behaviors expected in a sexual encounter, with female-initiated sexual violence against men potentially being perceived as more consensual than the inverse. The current study examined how relationship type (Experiments 1 and 2) and gender pairing (Experiment 2) influenced participants' perceptions of how consensual various sexual encounters were. Participants read a series of vignettes in which sexual consent was verbally granted, verbally rejected, or inferred using nonverbal cues. Additionally, the dyads' relationships were either described as dating, friends, or strangers. Following vignette presentation, participants provided judgments regarding how consensual the interactions were. Experiment 2 expanded upon this by manipulating the gender of the initiators and targets. When consent was not clearly indicated, more established relationships were associated with higher ratings of perceived consent. Male targets were attributed more responsibility for sexual interactions, and they were also believed to want nonconsensual sex more than female targets. These findings highlight the importance of contextual information in instances where sexual consent is unclear.

From flower to fruit: fruit growth and development in olive (Olea europaea L.)-a review.

The olive (Olea europaea L.) is the most cultivated tree crop in the Mediterranean and among the most cultivated tree crops worldwide. Olive yield is obtained by the product of fruit number and fruit size; therefore, understanding fruit development, in terms of both number and size, is commercially and scientifically relevant. This article reviews the literature on fruit development, from the flower to the mature fruit, considering factors that affect both fruit size and number. The review focuses on olive but includes literature on other species when relevant. The review brings the different factors affecting different phases of fruit development, addressed separately in the literature, under a single frame of interpretation. It is concluded that the different mechanisms regulating the different phases of fruit development, from pistil abortion to fruit set and fruit size, can be considered as different aspects of the same overall strategy, that is, adjusting fruit load to the available resources while striving to achieve the genetically determined fruit size target and the male and female fitness targets.

Some Evidence That Truth-Tellers Are More Attractive Than Liars.

Despite the prevalence of deception, people rarely doubt others' sincerity. However, indirect evaluations of liars and truth-tellers may differ even in the absence of suspicion about veracity. Across three studies, we provide evidence for the truth attraction effect in two samples of target stimuli and three samples of participant judges. Target people are perceived as more attractive when telling the truth versus when they lie, an effect mediated by target warmth and openness. The truth attraction effect is stronger for female targets (vs. males); however, it is unaffected by the gender of the judge. Findings suggest people may be more likely to approach truth-tellers versus liars, even when not actively judging veracity. We discuss the challenges and benefits of treating both targets and participants as random factors in linear mixed-effect analyses and join the chorus of calls to increase the number of target stimuli in deception research.

Gender differences incognitive andaffective interpersonal emotion regulation incouples: an fNIRS hyperscanning.

Emotion regulation is vital in maintaining romantic relationships in couples. Although gender differences exist in cognitive and affective strategies during 'intrapersonal' emotion regulation, it is unclear how gender differences through affective bonds work in 'interpersonal' emotion regulation (IER) in couples. Thirty couple dyads and 30 stranger dyads underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning recordings when targets complied with their partner's cognitive engagement (CE) and affective engagement (AE) strategies after viewing sad and neutral videos. Behaviorally, for males, CE was less effective than AE in both groups, but little difference occurred for females between AE and CE. For couples, Granger causality analysis showed that male targets had less neural activity than female targets in CH06, CH13 and CH17 during CE. For inflow and outflow activities on CH06 and CH13 (frontopolar cortex), respectively, male targets had less activity in the CE condition than in the AE condition, while for outflow activities on CH 17 (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), female targets had more activity in the CE condition than in the AE condition. However, these differences were not observed in strangers. These results suggest gender differences in CE but not in AE and dissociable flow patterns in male and female targets in couples during sadness regulation.

Who do you think they are? An exploratory analysis of face-based impressions formed by cisgender, transgender and gender nonbinary individuals.

Background: Individuals make first impressions of others based on how they look. Facial cues trigger gender social categorisation and elicit gender stereotyping. However, it remains unclear to what extent such impressions are influenced by the perceivers’ gender identity and gender beliefs. Methods: We recruited cisgender and transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) participants (N = 195). Participants were shown three morphed faces (prototypical male versus. prototypical female versus. androgynous) and, for each target, were asked to create a sentence describing their first impression. (within-participants design). To do so, they had to choose from a list of pronouns, professions, and personality traits. Participants also reported how confident they were in their first impression and rated the gender of the targets. Results: Results showed that overall participants perceived the prototypical male target as masculine while both the prototypical female and androgynous targets were seen as feminine. Participants also felt more confident when forming an impression about the prototypical male target. Further, impressions were influenced by perceivers’ gender identity. Cisgender participants formed stronger stereotypical impressions of the prototypical male and female target than TGNB participants. In particular, cisgender participants were more likely to use masculine pronouns for the prototypical male target and more feminine pronouns for the prototypical female target, but less neutral pronouns for the androgynous target, than TGNB participants. The difference is pronoun use was mediated by cisgender participants stronger endorsement of gender binary beliefs. Conclusions: These findings provide new insights into face-based stereotyping and show the importance of considering different stereotype components and individual differences such as gender identity and beliefs.

Lineup size influences voice identification accuracy

AbstractWe investigated the effects of lineup size, target presence, and target sex on voice identification accuracy. In Study 1, participants identified a female target from 1‐, 6‐, or 10‐voice target present or target absent lineups. Results demonstrated increasing accuracy with smaller target absent lineups. One‐voice lineups led to higher rates of innocent suspect identifications than 10‐voice lineups. In Study 2, participants identified a male or female target from 1‐, 6‐, or 10‐voice target present or target absent lineups. Results revealed increased correct identifications in 1‐ and 6‐voice and increased innocent suspect identifications in 1‐voice lineups, compared to 10‐voice lineups. Female lineups resulted in higher accuracy in target present lineups yet increased rates of innocent suspect identifications. Our findings indicate 1‐voice lineups result in both increased accuracy and increased innocent suspect identifications, a trade‐off which may not be advisable. Future research should further explore the impact of multi‐voice lineups on accuracy.

Cortical networks for recognition of speech with simultaneous talkers

The relative contributions of superior temporal vs. inferior frontal and parietal networks to recognition of speech in a background of competing speech remain unclear, although the contributions themselves are well established. Here, we use fMRI with spectrotemporal modulation transfer function (ST-MTF) modeling to examine the speech information represented in temporal vs. frontoparietal networks for two speech recognition tasks with and without a competing talker. Specifically, 31 listeners completed two versions of a three-alternative forced choice competing speech task: “Unison” and “Competing”, in which a female (target) and a male (competing) talker uttered identical or different phrases, respectively. Spectrotemporal modulation filtering (i.e., acoustic distortion) was applied to the two-talker mixtures and ST-MTF models were generated to predict brain activation from differences in spectrotemporal-modulation distortion on each trial. Three cortical networks were identified based on differential patterns of ST-MTF predictions and the resultant ST-MTF weights across conditions (Unison, Competing): a bilateral superior temporal (S-T) network, a frontoparietal (F-P) network, and a network distributed across cortical midline regions and the angular gyrus (M-AG). The S-T network and the M-AG network responded primarily to spectrotemporal cues associated with speech intelligibility, regardless of condition, but the S-T network responded to a greater range of temporal modulations suggesting a more acoustically driven response. The F-P network responded to the absence of intelligibility-related cues in both conditions, but also to the absence (presence) of target-talker (competing-talker) vocal pitch in the Competing condition, suggesting a generalized response to signal degradation. Task performance was best predicted by activation in the S-T and F-P networks, but in opposite directions (S-T: more activation = better performance; F-P: vice versa). Moreover, S-T network predictions were entirely ST-MTF mediated while F-P network predictions were ST-MTF mediated only in the Unison condition, suggesting an influence from non-acoustic sources (e.g., informational masking) in the Competing condition. Activation in the M-AG network was weakly positively correlated with performance and this relation was entirely superseded by those in the S-T and F-P networks. Regarding contributions to speech recognition, we conclude: (a) superior temporal regions play a bottom-up, perceptual role that is not qualitatively dependent on the presence of competing speech; (b) frontoparietal regions play a top-down role that is modulated by competing speech and scales with listening effort; and (c) performance ultimately relies on dynamic interactions between these networks, with ancillary contributions from networks not involved in speech processing per se (e.g., the M-AG network).

Are humorous or distractor images more effective than self-compassion messages for combatting the negative body image consequences of social media? An experimental test of possible micro-intervention stimuli

Appearance-focused images on social media are thought to be particularly detrimental for body image. However, social media sites can also be used to encourage positive health behaviours. Three linked experiments with 620 Instagram users explored the protective capabilities of appearance-related self-compassion and appearance-related humorous messages for women’s body image during Instagram use. Using simulated Instagram browsing tasks, participants were exposed to a set of fitspiration Instagram posts mixed with either self-compassion or humorous body image messages, or appearance-neutral images. Results indicated that appearance-related self-compassion and humorous messages were not more effective at protecting against negative appearance and life satisfaction outcomes than appearance-neutral images, and did not influence appearance comparison (Experiment 1), even when the personal relevance to participants’ health was reinforced through experimental manipulation (Experiment 2). Rather, the presence of any image which did not contain pictures of women, regardless of image content, led to improved body image outcomes compared to exposure to fitspiration images alone (Experiment 3). Interpersonal factors such as the similarity of a female target’s appearance also influenced the nature of comparisons made. The study highlights the importance of diluting appearance-focused content with other social media images in ongoing research practice and for user well-being.

Nice, but not smart? Attributional backlash from displaying prosocial behavior in the classroom

According to attributional theory, when the application of effort leads to success we praise the achievement. Effort and ability, however, are seen as compensatory and thus, paradoxically, being praised can lead to attributions of low ability. Our study investigates whether praise, not for academic performance, but for social classroom behavior, would also incur attributional backlash. We examined whether prosociality relates to attributions of high effort and low ability, mediated by expected teacher praise and happiness. In adolescence, prosocial behavior is displayed more by females and aligns with femininity. We conducted an experimental vignette study with 324 German ninth graders to examine whether prosocial students experience a denigration of achievement via expected teacher reaction. Multilevel modelling showed that compared to nondescript students, prosocial students were judged to receive good grades as a result of effort and less due to ability, but this was not related to expected teacher reactions. Prosocial students were also judged to be more likeable and popular. Examination of gender-related outcomes showed that prosocial students were believed to be more feminine, but also more masculine than the nondescript student. Female prosocial targets were thought to be more typical, but not as occurring more frequently than their male counterparts. The results are discussed in reference to the paradox of praise. The limitations and implications of the research are discussed, particularly regarding female students’ achievements.