Hostile Sexist Attitudes Research Articles

Understanding the relationships among self-ascribed gender traits, social desirability, and ambivalent sexism

The stereotypical gender traits used in self-descriptions could contribute to shape ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women, including antipathy toward women who appear to threaten the gender hierarchy (i.e., hostile sexist attitudes) and affection for women who embrace traditional feminine roles (i.e., benevolent sexism). Empirical evidence associates more stereotypically feminine traits with benevolent sexism and masculine traits with hostile sexism but does not offer a clear picture, likely because of the non-controlled effect of social desirability and other gender traits in those relationships. We examine whether self-ascribed masculine traits moderate the modulating influence of social desirability in the linkage between feminine traits and benevolent sexism, and whether self-ascribed feminine traits moderate the modulating effect of social desirability in the association between masculine traits and hostile sexist attitudes. Results reveal that stereotypical gender traits and social desirability are connected to benevolent and hostile sexism, although differently. The gendered profile of those with benevolent attitudes (i.e., participants who self-attribute largely feminine traits) is different from those with hostile attitudes (i.e., participants who self-ascribe mainly masculine traits). In addition, the need to gain others’ approval or, more importantly, to avoid their disapproval, leads individuals to offer more socially desirable responses that mask their hostility toward women, whereas this need is less evident when hiding benevolent attitudes. As benevolent sexism is more pervasive in society and, unlike hostile sexism, is not easily recognized as a type of prejudice, it is harder to counteract and, therefore, to eliminate.

Insecurity and Self-Esteem: Elucidating the Psychological Foundations of Negative Attitudes toward Women

AbstractPolitical scientists recognize discriminatory attitudes as key to understanding a range of political preferences. Sexism is associated with both explicitly and non-explicitly gendered attitudes. But why do certain individuals display discriminatory attitudes, while others do not? Drawing from psychology, we examine the potential power of an underexplored set of personality traits—secure versus fragile self-esteem—in explaining gendered attitudes and preferences. With an online sample of (N = 487) U.S.-based participants, we find that fragile self-esteem is an important trait underlying individuals’ attitudes: individuals who display a discordant view of self—explicitly positive but implicitly negative—are more likely to hold hostile sexist attitudes and prefer men in leadership; these individuals are also more likely to support the Republican Party and former U.S. president Donald Trump. While present in only a fraction of the population, our results suggest that this trait may be important for understanding the development of discriminatory attitudes toward out-groups.

Attitudes Toward Transnational Surrogacy, Ambivalent Sexism, and Views on Financial Allocation

In this exploratory study, we examine perceptions of commercial surrogacy and how these perceptions might influence decisions about how to allocate financial resources to those involved in the surrogacy market in a U.S. sample. We surveyed 340 participants through MTurk and students enrolled in psychology courses at Muhlenberg College on their perceptions of surrogacy and their decisions on how to allocate compensation. Findings indicate that the surrogate’s marital status influenced financial allocations to parties involved in the surrogacy arrangement, and men and those high in hostile sexist attitudes offered less money to surrogates and more money to doctors. These findings support previous studies showing how ambivalent sexism influences attitudes toward reproduction.

Addressing organizational climate can potentially reduce sexual harassment of female agricultural workers in California

Workplace sexual harassment (SH) has been highlighted as a key issue for female agricultural workers in the United States. This study investigated how workers' descriptive data (age, job experience, attitudes) and specific organizational variables (how work crews are structured) potentially facilitate SH in an agricultural setting. Harassment was reported by 30% of surveyed female viticulture workers in their current jobs. Harassed women tended to be younger, employed seasonally and working in crews where hostile sexist views were prevalent. Harassment affected worker productivity; harassed women and their male co-workers were less satisfied with their jobs and more likely to seek other employment. Efforts to address SH by restructuring at the level of the field crew may be ineffective. Instead, addressing workers' hostile sexist attitudes and the extent to which an organization tolerates SH appears to have the most promise for reducing SH in agricultural industries.

Sexism and the Australian voter: how sexist attitudes influenced vote choice in the 2019 federal election

ABSTRACT While attitudes toward women and gender equality are increasingly salient in Australian politics, little is known about how sexist attitudes shape political behaviour. Using the Australian Election Study, I assess the extent hostile sexism is present among Australian citizens and influenced vote choice in the 2019 Federal election. First, I find that women are less likely than men to hold hostile sexist attitudes, but gender differences vary by party identification. Second, I show that hostile sexism is not significantly related to the likelihood of voting for the Labor or Liberal parties. Hostile sexist attitudes, however, significantly increase the likelihood of voting for the National party and significantly decrease the likelihood of voting for the Greens. Finally, I find no gender difference in the role of hostile sexism in explaining vote choice.

Aggressors condemned for intimate partner violence: Sexist attitudes and distorted thoughts about women and the use of violence

This work analyzes the ambivalent sexist attitudes and distorted thoughts about women and the use of violence in a sample of Spanish aggressors found guilty of intimate partner violence. We have studied the relationship between the aggressors’ ambivalent sexist attitudes and their cognitive distortions, as well as the predictive capacity of their distorted thoughts concerning women and violence with respect to sexist attitudes. Similarly, we have analyzed the presence of significant differences between ambivalent sexist attitudes and distorted thoughts with respect to several personal and psychological characteristics of the condemned aggressors. The instruments applied were the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), the Inventory of Distorted Thoughts about Women and the use of Violence (IDTWV) and the Social Desirability Scale (SDS). Likewise was realized a general structured interview to discover their personal, family and penitentiary situation. The study concludes that aggressors use violence as a resource to resolve conflicts with their intimate partner, even though they do not show a hostile sexist attitudes towards women in general. We demonstrate that distorted thoughts concerning women and violence predict a greater prevalence of ambivalent sexist attitudes in aggressors, and we have found a low level of education and the existence of jealousy in the relationship are related with a greater presence of sexist attitudes. However, the existence of episodes of family violence in childhood, concretely having been the victim of emotional abuse, does not necessarily lead to greater sexism in aggressors. We discuss the implications of the results of this work for prison environment.

Preventing Violence toward Sexual and Cultural Diversity: The Role of a Queering Sex Education.

Background: The prevailing sex education (SE) model falls within a neoliberal prevention- and risk-oriented paradigm. This model ignores the identity dimension of sexuality, is based on the cis-heteronormative and ethnocentric matrix and stigmatizes sexual and cultural diversity; this has significant consequences for sexually and culturally diverse adolescents and youth. In this study, we explored the potential of the identity dimension of SE to prevent violence toward sexual and cultural diversity. Specifically, our objective was to identify the influence of heteronormative and ethnocentric variables on violence exerted against trans* and gender-diverse people and people from minority ethnic groups. Methods: A total of 623 Spanish adolescents with a mean age of 14.73 years and an age range of 13 to 18 years participated in the study. Students completed a questionnaire that included measures regarding violence toward sexual and cultural diversity, gender stereotypes, sexist attitudes and rejection of sexual and cultural diversity. We performed two hierarchical linear regression models. Results: Students who exerted the highest amount of violence toward trans* and gender-diverse people were those who showed the lowest endorsement of expressive traits and the highest endorsement of instrumental traits as well as the highest level of hostile sexist, heteronormative and hostile racist attitudes (the five predictor variables explained 29.1% of the variance of gender-bashing). These same variables—except expressiveness—and benevolent sexism explained 46.1% of the variance of rejection of minority ethnic groups. Conclusions: There is a need for a comprehensive, intercultural, critical and queer SE aimed at transforming the classroom into a space that promotes social transformation through an educational practice that is transgressive and critical of cis-heteronormativity and normative ethnocentrism.

Neural indicators of sexual objectification: an examination of the late positive potential (LPP), sexual objectification, and the body-inversion effect

ABSTRACT In Western cultures, sexualized women are frequently viewed as if they were objects rather than people (i.e., dehumanized). Researchers have reported an inversion effect in which images of sexualized men were more accurately identified in an upright (vs. inverted) position (person-like recognition), whereas images of sexualized women were equally recognized across both inverted and upright positions (object-like recognition). The current study (N = 37) conceptually adds to these findings by examining a neural indicator – the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential that tracks attention to relevant stimuli. We expected and found that inverted stimuli elicited a greater LPP overall, consistent with more effortful processing. Moreover, a greater LPP for inverted (vs. upright) male targets was associated with poorer accuracy, whereas no LPP-accuracy association was observed for female targets; this LPP pattern across males and females is consistent with perceiving females in a dehumanizing manner. The results also suggest that hostile sexist attitudes are associated with dehumanizing female images, that is, participants viewed women via an analytical processing-style characteristic of object-perception. However, the examination of ambivalent sexism was exploratory and future research is needed to clarify the findings. The current study adds to the self-objectification and sexism literature.

Intersections of Feminist Identification and Hostile Sexism

AbstractThis research examines the relationship between religious identification and feminist identification. Additionally, it investigates the extent of hostile sexist attitudes among those who identify as religious feminists. Utilizing 2016 American National Election Survey data, I find that religious women are no more or less likely to identify as feminist than the religiously unaffiliated, while evangelical and black Protestant men are less likely to identify as feminist. Further, both black Protestant women and Catholic men who identify as feminist express hostile sexist sentiment to a higher degree than their feminist unaffiliated counterparts, along with Latinas and Asian‐identified men. This study offers quantitative insights into the relationship between feminist identification, religious affiliation, and hostile sexist attitudes. Additional implications for this study include conceptualizations of feminism and sexism more broadly in society.

Relaciones entre las actitudes sexistas, la comunicación familiar y la agresión hacia los iguales

La violencia escolar entre iguales es una problemática con graves consecuencias psicosociales. Además, se produce en una etapa del ciclo vital en que la familia y las actitudes sexistas tienen cierta influencia en las conductas violentas de los adolescentes. Desde esta perspectiva, el objetivo del presente trabajo fue analizar posibles diferencias en el sexismo hostil, sexismo benevolente, comunicación con la madre y comunicación con el padre entre tres grupos de adolescentes establecidos según su diferente implicación en violencia hacia los iguales: “baja implicación”, “implicación ocasional” y “implicación frecuente”. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 1034 adolescentes de ambos sexos (50.6% chicos y 49.4% chicas), de edades comprendidas entre los 12 y los 18 años. Los resultados muestran que los adolescentes con una implicación frecuente en conductas de violencia hacia los iguales presentan más actitudes sexistas benévolas y hostiles y más problemas de comunicación con ambos progenitores. Asimismo, los implicados en conductas agresivas frecuentes y ocasionales muestran menos comunicación abierta con la madre y con el padre. Los resultados evidencian la necesidad de ayudar a los adolescentes que ejercen agresión frecuente hacia sus iguales e indica la importancia de incluir estas variables en los programas de prevención.

Gender, sexism, and the election: did sexism help Trump more than it hurt Clinton?

ABSTRACTData from Reuters/Ipsos polls (6116 respondents) conducted shortly before and after the 2016 presidential election (from 4 to 17 November 2016) were used to test whether: (1) women and men differed in favorability toward Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, (2) sexism (either hostile or benevolent) predicted favorability ratings toward each candidate. Overall, men and women rated Clinton similarly, but men favored Trump significantly more than women did. Hostile sexist attitudes were second only to general political orientation in predicting positive attitudes toward Trump; however, hostile sexism predicted disfavoring Clinton only among women and not among men. By contrast, benevolent sexism weakly, but significantly predicted greater favorability toward Clinton but was unrelated to Trump favorability ratings. Thus, hostile sexist attitudes among voters significantly helped Trump, whereas benevolent sexism yielded only a weak protective effect toward Clinton.

Benevolent and Hostile Sexism in Social Spheres: The Impact of Parents, School and Romance on Belgian Adolescents' Sexist Attitudes.

Despite growing public awareness and policy efforts, gender equality has not yet been fully established in Western societies. Previous research has shown that hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes, which are grounded in traditional gender stereotypes, play a key role in the reproduction of gender inequalities. Whereas, hostile and benevolent sexism among adolescents has been previously studied, limited attention has been paid to social characteristics in understanding the support for these attitudes. In this article, we aim to study how the family, the school and romantic partnerships relate to adolescents' benevolent and hostile sexist attitudes. We relied on data gathered in 2013 by the Flemish Youth Research Platform and performed multivariate analyses on 755 parent-child dyads (n♂ = 342; n♀ = 413). Our results indicate that social characteristics especially matter to explain the variation in benevolent sexist attitudes among girls and hostile sexist attitudes among boys. Among girls, being in a romantic relationship and parents' traditional moral beliefs was strongly related to benevolent sexism; while for boys, hostile sexism was strongly related to being enrolled in technical and vocational education. In the conclusion, we elaborate on the implications of our findings.

Dehumanizing representations of women: the shaping of hostile sexist attitudes through animalistic metaphors

Women are frequently depicted as non-human objects or animals. While female animalization has typically been conceptualized in the psychological literature as communicating a unitary perception of women, linguistic research suggests that there are at least two distinct animalizing linguistic metaphors for women that depict women at opposite ends of a sex-based power differential: ‘women-are-predators’ and ‘women-are-prey’. Are these linguistic metaphors able to shape sexist attitudes towards women? US Male and female undergraduates read an article, which concerned women voters in an election year, containing language that described women as predatory, prey-like, or in a humanized manner (baseline). They then reported their ambivalent sexist attitudes towards women in general. Consistent with both metaphors’ emphasis on sex-based power differentials, both male and female participants, who read about predatory women, exhibited greater agreement with hostile sexist attitudes than participants who read about prey-like women. This study suggests that the continued transmission of animalizing metaphors for women may help perpetuate prejudicial beliefs about appropriate roles for women in society. Media communicators might learn to identify and eliminate the use of the animalizing terms in their own work.

Do Sexist Mothers Change More Diapers? Ambivalent Sexism, Maternal Gatekeeping, and the Division of Childcare

The present study examined the role of ambivalent sexist ideologies in the division of childcare responsibilities. We proposed maternal gatekeeping as a mediator through which hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women facilitate gendered division of childcare. A sample of 207 mothers with at least one child aged 6 years or younger completed extensive questionnaires. As hypothesized, the mother’s hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women were positively related to maternal gatekeeping tendencies. Gatekeeping, in turn, was related to the mother’s greater time investment in childcare and greater share of childcare tasks relative to the father. Finally, hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women had an indirect effect on the mothers’ hours of care and relative share of childcare tasks, mediated though maternal gatekeeping. The findings underscore the importance of investigating the mechanisms through which sexist ideologies are translated into daily behaviors that help maintain a gendered social structure. They may be utilized to inform parenting interventions aimed at increasing collaborative family work and fathers’ participation.

White Female Bystanders’ Responses to a Black Woman at Risk for Sexual Assault: Associations With Attitudes About Sexism and Racial Injustice

ABSTRACTWomen of color are affected by both sexism and racism. We examined White women’s attitudes about sexism (hostile and benevolent sexism) and racial injustice (White empathic responses to racism) as correlates of their responses to a Black woman at risk for an alcohol-related sexual assault. White undergraduate women (N = 172) reported on their attitudes and then completed measures of blame and willingness to intervene in response to a scenario in which a woman named “LaToya” is at risk. All 3 types of attitudes were directly related to victim blame, whereas only hostile sexism was directly, negatively related to willingness to intervene. White empathic responses to racism moderated the associations between benevolent sexism and both victim blame and willingness to intervene. Results suggest that among White female bystanders, both hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes were related to increased blame and reduced willingness to intervene to help Black women at risk. The adverse effects of benevolent sexism, however, were reduced for those with greater concerns about racial injustice.

Young, Innocent and Sexist? Social Differences in Benevolent and Hostile Sexist Attitudes towards Women amongst Flemish Adolescents

Over the past few decades the position of women in Western societies has substantially improved in several domains. However, persistent inequalities remain and gender prejudice is thought to play a key role in this. In this article, we contribute to the literature which holds that in current Western societies, gender prejudice manifests itself in a more ‘benevolent’ form which encompasses subjectively favourable but patronizing attitudes towards women. We investigated the distribution of hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) towards women amongst a large sample of Flemish adolescents ( N = 952). We found that while HS towards women is most prevalent amongst boys in technical and vocational education, girls in technical and vocational education also comply with macho culture. Moreover, these less educated girls also display the most BS towards women.

Estereótipos de género e sexismo em docentes do ensino superior

La socialización de género ocurre cotidianamente y marca de forma indeleble la identidad individual, así como la cultura de las organizaciones y de los grupos. La interacción entre discentes e docentes forma parte del proceso de socialización de género. De ese modo, diversas investigaciones muestran que la atención que se presta y las expectativas que los docentes tienen de los alumnos y las alumnas son diferentes. En esta investigación se buscó analizar y caracterizar a un grupo de docentes universitarios portugueses, mujeres y hombres, en cuanto a sus estereotipos de género y sexismo, con el objetivo de promover la reflexión del conjunto de agentes educativos involucrados. Los resultados obtenidos nos permiten concluir que esos y esas docentes poseen estereotipos de género, pero con algunas particularidades interesantes, como el hecho de que a las mujeres se les atribuye mayor carga de rasgos instrumentales. Igualmente, se verificó que el tipo de sexismo que predomina es el sexismo ambivalente, ya que los hombres presentan actitudes sexistas significativamente más hostiles que las mujeres.

Explicit but not implicit sexist beliefs predict benevolent and hostile sexist behavior

AbstractMuch work has been carried out on sexist attitudes, but only little on sexist behaviors. The goal of the present research was to close this gap by testing how a variety of benevolent and hostile sexist behaviors correlate with implicit and explicit sexist attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 126), we developed implicit association tests for benevolent sexism and hostile sexism and illustrated that implicit and explicit benevolent sexist beliefs, as well as implicit and explicit hostile sexist beliefs, were positively correlated. In Study 2 (N = 83 of Study 1), we tested whether implicit and explicit benevolent and hostile sexist attitudes correlate with benevolent and hostile sexist behaviors. As expected, explicit benevolent (but not hostile) sexist attitudes predicted benevolent sexist behavior, whereas explicit hostile (but not benevolent) sexist attitudes predicted hostile sexist behavior. Implicit sexist attitudes did not predict sexist behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.

A dangerous boomerang: Injunctive norms, hostile sexist attitudes, and male-to-female sexual aggression.

This study examined the interactive effects of injunctive norm exposure and hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes on men's sexually aggressive responses during a behavioral analogue paradigm in which they interacted online with a bogus female partner. Heterosexual adult men (n = 201), recruited from an online sample, read fictional information regarding other men's approval of misogynistic, paternalistic, or egalitarian treatment of women, or non-gender-relevant control information. Through a media preference survey, men then learned that their female partner disliked sexual content in films, after which they had an opportunity to send her up to 120 sec' worth of either a sexually explicit or nonsexual film clip. Validating the online sexual aggression paradigm, men with a 1-year history of sexual assault exhibited more sexually aggressive responding during the film selection paradigm. Moreover, exposure to injunctive norm information produced a boomerang effect, such that men high in hostile sexist attitudes showed an increase in sexual aggression when confronted with paternalism and gender equality norms. Conversely, exposure to paternalism and gender equality norms suppressed the otherwise protective function of high benevolent sexism in reducing men's sexually aggressive tendencies. The implications of these results for social norms interventions are discussed.

The social nature of benevolent sexism and the antisocial nature of hostile sexism: Is benevolent sexism more likely to manifest in public contexts and hostile sexism in private contexts?

Previous research converges on demonstrating that benevolent sexism (BS) is socially approved, whereas hostile sexism (HS) is socially disapproved. We postulated that a sample of married women would be likely to report that their husbands express hostile sexist attitudes and engage in related actions towards them more in private than public contexts, where they lie concealed from public censure. By contrast, the women would report that their husbands would be likely to express benevolent sexist attitudes and engage in related actions more in public than private contexts, where they are reinforced not only by their target (i.e. wife), but also by significant others and the society at large. We tested these hypotheses with a sample of Black, heterosexually married Zimbabwean women (n = 109, mean age = 31.83). Results supported our hypotheses: the women reported hostile sexist attitudes and actions to be more likely to occur in private than public contexts; on the other hand, they reported benevolent sexist attitudes and actions to be more likely in public than private contexts. We conclude that differences in social approval of BS and HS account for these results.