14 and 15 - Other Forms of Stigma Flashcards
1- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Ambivalent sexism
What is hostile sexism?
What Makes Sexism Different? (from other forms of stigma)
-Men and women are generally differentiated in biology and strongly
differentiated in social roles.
-Relationships between men & women are complicated by sexual reproduction
o Creates dependency and intimacy between the sexes
-Women are not a numerical minority, but are economically disadvantaged
-Straightforward accounts of ingroup favoritism + outgroup hatred don’t apply!
Hostile sexism (misogyny): Antagonistic negative attitudes toward women
* Characterized by beliefs such as:
o Women are enemies
o Women seek to control men
o Women use sex to exploit men
o Women demand too much
Hostile Sexism Scale
Agreement towards… (don’t need to memorize this)
* Women seek to gain power by getting control over men.
* Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a
tight leash.
* Many women are actually seeking special favors, such as hiring policies that
favor them over men, under the guise of asking for “equality”.
* Most women fail to appreciate all that men do for them
2- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Ambivalent sexism
What is benevolent sexism?
Why Do Benevolent Prejudices Matter?
Benevolent sexism: (put on a pedestal)
Subjectively positive attitudes & beliefs about women that
justify traditional gender roles
Characterized by beliefs such as:
* Women are pure & good
* Women ought to be protected
* Women ought to be cared for
* Women nurture children & men through adversity
Benevolent Sexism Scale
Agreement towards…
* Women should be cherished and protected by men
* Women should be placed on a pedestal
* Women, compared to men, tend to have superior moral sensibility
* Men should be willing to sacrifice their own well-being in order to provide financially for the women in their lives
‘Implicit’ Benevolent Sexism
Adult men and women completed a Male-Female / Good – Bad IAT.
Both women and men showed pro-female attitudes on the IAT.
Four-year old girls and boys completed a Boy-Girl / Good –Bad “IAT”.
Girl participants showed a pro-girl IAT effect, boys
showed no reliable preference.
Why do benevolent prejudices matter?
* Benevolent sexism’s underpinnings lie in stereotyping women as inferior and men as superior.
* Hostile and benevolent sexism are positively correlated (r = .52)
* Countries with higher levels of benevolent sexism among the population also
have more gender inequality.
* Women with stronger benevolent sexist beliefs:
o (a) are less resistant to discrimination
o (b) have lower educational and career goals for themselves,
o (c) take on more unpaid labor
(example: researchers who are mothers were robbed of more research time during the pandemic
Mercedes helps Mila go to the bathroom while on a call for work. Her husband
works from the office next door.)
-Benevolent sexism allows men to characterize their privileges as deserved.
* Benevolent prejudices are difficult to change
o They are superficially positive
o They are difficult to see
o Easy to be convinced that there is nothing to feel guilty about
3- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Ambivalent sexism
Ambivalent sexism: The combination of hostile & benevolent sexism
o Both forms of sexism work together to provides incentives for people to
remain in traditional gender roles
o Hostile sexism punishes women who challenge the status quo
o Benevolent sexism rewards women who embrace traditional gender roles
4- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Prescriptive gender norms
- Prescriptive norms: How people should behave
o For women: Kindness, warmth, communality, selflessness
(Frida Kahlo example, Yvonne Brill the rocket scientist first described as a mother, the australian writer first described by her weight and attracting men…)
o For men: Leadership, competence, and agency (being proactive, autonomous, self-directed, “in charge”) - Stereotypes legitimize men’s greater status and power relative to women
- Masculine traits & pursuits are more highly valued
ex: college majors with the lowest vs. highest earnings
Masculinity and ‘Brilliance’
Leslie, Cimpian, Meyer & Freeland (2015) studied the association between gender-disparities in PhD students and the degree to which
success in that field was supposed to rely on innate “brilliance”.
(see graph)
Backlash Effects
Backlash: Social and economic penalties for acting counter-stereotypically
* Women must disconfirm female stereotypes in order to be perceived as
competent leaders
* BUT… people have negative reactions toward ambitious and capable women
(backlash effects)
* Women who enact agentic behaviors are often seen as socially deficient
* These deficiencies lead to punishment and discrimination
Ex: Hilary Clinton…seen as very competent, but very cold.
Traditional housewife… seen as very incompetent, but very warm
same for varioussss different groups (see graph)
A double-bind in hiring & promotion
* Warm women are seen as less capable, competent, and
committed
* Competent women are seen as less likeable, more hostile, and less of a team player
5- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Gender Identity
-Sex: An organism’s biological status, typically
categorized as male, female, or intersex
Biological indicators:
* Sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive
organs, and external genitalia
-Gender: thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that a culture associates with masculinity & femininity
-Gender Identity: A person’s sense of their own
gender
-Cisgender: Gender identity that corresponds with
one’s birth sex
-Transgender: Gender identity that differs from one’s birth sex
-Non-binary: Gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine
o Multiple genders
o No gender
o Fluctuating gender
o Other genders
TransYouth Project
First lab that actively studies gender development in
transgender children
o Tracking socially-transitioned children
longitudinally starting from 3-12 years old
* Compared against siblings and unrelated children
Research Question: Do 5-12 year-olds who identify with a gender that is opposite of their birth sex express preferences consistent with their gender, their birth sex, or something in the middle?
-Gender-Attitude IAT
-Gendered object preferences
-Gendered friendship preferences
Results: Transgender
children express preferences
consistent with their gender
A recent study using a larger sample (N > 300) and a greater number of outcomes reached a similar conclusion.
There were no differences within transgender children based on how long they had been living as their current gender.
TransYouth project:
Neither sex assignment at birth nor direct or indirect sex-specific socialization and
expectations (e.g., rewarding masculine things and punishing feminine ones for
assigned males) in alignment with early assignment necessarily define how a child later identifies or expresses their gender.
These findings illustrate that children develop a sense of identity at an early age,
that this identity is not necessarily determined by sex assigned at birth, and that children may hold on to this identity even when it conflicts with others’
expectations.
Implicit Transgender Attidudes
Measured in each state of the US
Results: Implicit and explicit anti-transgender attitudes were higher in states with more discriminatory laws.
6- Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation:
Sexual Orientation
Individual Attitudes, Beliefs,
& Perceived Norms —- influence —– Law & Policy, and vice versa!
- Obergefell & Hodges: June 2015 Supreme Court case on same-sex marriage
Study 1: Experiment
Being told that a favorable ruling was likely
o Increased perception of norms supporting same-sex marriage
o Increased support for same-sex marriage
Study 2: Longitudinal study
Tracked perceptions of norms & attitudes over time
Research Question:
What happened when
states passed same-sex
marriage legislation?
Results: States that passed samesex marriage legalization experienced
greater decreases in bias following legalization.
Changes in Implicit Sexuality Attitudes
implicit biases decreased for sexuality, but stayed the same for age and disability
7- Age:
Ageism as a ‘Special Case’
We often feel older or younger than we really are
often feel older before 25, feel 25 when we are 25, and feel younger when we are past 25
- Age is differentiated by biology & experience
- Social roles are strongly differentiated by age
- Age is complicated by familial relations
- Age is malleable
o Young people will be old, and old people were once
young - Age is continuous but can be perceived categorically
- Older people tend to be more powerful (to a point)
- There is a difference between “age identity” and
“generational identity”
8- Age:
Benevolent ageism & Ageism in Discrimination
Benevolent ageism: Subjectively positive attitudes & beliefs about people on the
basis of age that justify paternalistic care & the status quo
Characterized by beliefs such as:
* Older people are physically weak
* Older people are mentally impaired
* Older people are lonely
* Older people are sociable and warm
Characterized by beliefs such as:
* Young people are outgoing & fun
* Young people succumb to peer pressure
* Young people lack mental faculties & knowledge
* Young people are emotionally undeveloped
In a field experiment, researchers sent out fictitious resumes to companies that were hiring in either the restaurant or sales industries.
Across resumes, the applicants were listed as being either 31 or 46 years old.*
For the sales assistant job, the younger applicant was 4 times as likely to receive an interview.
For the restaurant job, the younger applicant was 3 times as likely to receive an interview.
Pattern held for whether the job was full-time vs. part-time or permanent vs. temporary.
9- Age:
Implicit attitudes
Young people and old people implicitly prefer young people (children) to older people
Most positive evaluations… from children, young adults, middle adults, old adults
but can still be target of prejudice
Ingroup component: 40s-50s, more positive towards middle aged adults, a little less positive towards young adults
10- Age:
Intergenerational tensions
+ Egalitarianism and ageism
ex: ok boomer, older people not wanting to raise minimum wage for younger people and calling them greedy and lazy (even though their wage was worth wayyyy more back then), blaming gen z and millenials for “killing” certain economic trends, tension between gen z and millenials, etc.
In one study, participants completed measures of:
1) Egalitarianism Advocacy:
“My motivation for almost every activity I engage in is my desire for an egalitarian world”,
“I owe it to all people to work for greater opportunity and equality for all”
2) “Anti-Social Dominance Orientation”:
“Some groups are inferior to other groups” (reversed)
3) Hostile Racism:
“Women are seeking to gain power by getting control over men”
4) Hostile Sexism
“Black people are seeking to gain power by getting control over White people”
5) Hostile Ageism:
“Most older workers don’t know when it’s time to make way for the younger generation.”
Correlation B/w Egalitarianism Advocacy and:
Hostile Sexism: r = -.33
Hostile Racism: r = -.48
Hostile Ageism: r = .02
Correlation B/w Anti- SDO and:
Hostile Sexism: r = -.55
Hostile Racism: r = -.65
Hostile Ageism: r = -.03
One Explanation: Older people are seen as “opportunity blockers” that work to prevent other
under-represented groups from getting ahead.
11- Ability & Appearance:
Disability, ability and mental illness
The experiences of people with disabilities are diverse and varies in:
Visibility (“can you see it?”)
Controllability (“was it your fault?”)
Disruptiveness (“does it disrupt normal social living?”
Aesthetic qualities (“does it impact perceptions of attractiveness?”)
Peril (“are you seen as dangerous because of it?”)
- People report positive general attitudes toward people with
disabilities (PWDs) - However, other measures show strong prejudice:
o People are less willing to date or marry PWDs
o Strong implicit preferences for ‘abled’ over ‘disabled’ people
o PWDs commonly report experiences of discrimination - Mental illnesses are often seen as controllable
- Some forms of mental illness are highly linked to
feelings of peril - Stigma reduces likelihood that people will seek treatment for their
mental illness
o < 40% of people with mental illness have sought treatment
o Seeking mental illness treatment is stigmatizing in itself
12- Ability & Appearance:
attractiveness and skin tone
Halo Effect: Attractive people are thought to have more positive qualities
o Sociable, extraverted, popular, happy, assertive, etc.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: The beautiful receive more social attention, which helps
them develop good social skills.
* Highly attractive people
o Do develop good social interaction skills
o Report having more satisfying interactions with others
Study with CV with picture of pretty vs ugly face:
More attractive men: 35% receive a callback.
Less attractive men: 29% receive a callback.
More attractive women: 40% receive a callback.
Less attractive women: 32% receive a callback.
Lighter-skinned Black people are…
o Perceived to be more competent & sociable
o Less likely to be stereotyped
o Have higher income, SES & occupation outcomes
Why?
* Historically, darker skin tone was linked to working in the sun all day as
a farmer or laborer. Light skin tone meant you had a privileged position
* Exception: “Western” White people today want to have darker skin tones on average
o Status reversal: Being tanned means you have the privilege of going
to the beach, vacation, etc
King & Johnson (2016) coded the skin tone of Black and White features for 1100 felony
defendants coming from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. They also coded defendants by Afrocentric features based on prior literature (fuller lips, wider noses, etc.).
Higher probabilities of imprisonment if black, darker skin and afrocentric features
“In 2017, the global skin-lightening industry was worth $4.8 billion dollars and it is projected to grow to $8.9 billion by 2027, fueled by a growing middle class in the Asia-Pacific region.
13- Weight
What is special about weight stigma?
o Overweight people are assumed to be personally responsible for
their weight
o Weight discrimination is common and not seen as personally
problematic as in other domains (religion, race, etc.)
What are stereotypes about people who are overweight?
o Lazy, lacking willpower, unintelligent, sloppy, dishonest
Are men or women more vulnerable to weight stigma?
o Women. Greater pay discrimination, greater connection to gender
roles, judged to be “overweight” at lower weight levels
What mental health outcomes is weight stigma associated with?
o Low self-esteem, depression, suicide
There is a greater acceptance of weight-based prejudice (in my opinion, because people think it’s controllable)
(Female) participants read a fake newspaper article highlighting weight or smoking stigma:
Participants higher in perceived weight later consumed more calories and had weaker beliefs in
dietary control following exposure to the weight stigma information.
(so stigma doesn’t help! it just makes people give up)
Women exposed to the anti-fat peer showed both psychological and physiological changes:
1) Greater feelings of anticipated rejection from the interaction partner, particularly for
women higher in BMI.
2) Greater feelings of anger.
3) Greater heart-rate reactivity (a measure previously connected to feelings of threat)*
4) Worse cognitive performance (finding words in a game of Boggle).
Persistence? see graph (i don’t fully understand) but generally i think things are not changing rn for weight, age, skin tone and disability…
14- Emerging domains in stigma
Androgyny (Atwood & Axt, 2021)
- A novel IAT showed strong implicit biases in favor of gender-conforming over gender- nonconforming people.
Singlehood (Fisher & Sakaluk, 2020) - Single people reported greater discrimination both towards themselves and towards single people more generally compared to people in a relationship.
Consensual non-monogamy (Conley et al., 2013)
- Participants reported monogamous relationships as more respectful, romantic, comforting, and
morally superior than consensual non-monogamous relationships.
“Voluntary childlessness” (Lampman & Dowling-Guyer, 1995)
- A couple described as choosing not to have children was viewed as less caring than a couple
with children or who wanted to but could not have children.
