Lecture 17 - Prejudice (2) Sexism Flashcards
Construct Accessibility
Construct accessibility
(Higgins et al, 1985; Higgins & King, 1981: Srull & Wyer, 1986, 1989)
• Recency: contextual activation induces perceivers to interpret
events consistent with momentarily activated constructs
• Frequency: frequently activated constructs—those that are chronically accessible—are more likely to affect judgment
Both are determinants of construct activation
Independent effects
Interactive effects…
GENDER SCHEMA
THEORY REVISITED
Gender schematic (sex-typed), others are aschematic
Who is gender schematic?
• Those endorsing only sex related attributes (e.g. male endorses masculine/agentic traits) thought to be “gender schematic”
Creates a ‘heterosexual subschema’ (Bem 1981):
People with this might:
• encode all cross-sex interactions in sexual terms
• encode all members of the opposite sex in terms of sexual attractiveness
Like self schemata more generally, gender schema:
• Selective attention, encoding and retrieval
Helpful in ambiguous situations, but can be problematic if we
“fill in the gaps” incorrectly
TREATING WOMEN AS SEX
OBJECTS EXPERIMENT
Basic set up
Does gender schematic processing lead to prejudiced views
and behavior towards women?
Prime gender schema in schematic and aschematic men and record interaction with a woman…
Sex object experiment
Threee phases
Recruit gender schematic and aschematic ptps
Three (unrelated) phases:
1. “Censorship study” (1980s debate)
There was a debate about something in ontario
G1 Ptps watched a Video of house of commons debate
(Control)
G2 Ptps watched a Video of prostitute having sexual relations with client
(Experiment)
- “University Life Interview”
• Female interviewer
After this, ptps told they would be interviewed by a someone (was a girl) - “Passage of Time on Memory”
Ptps asked what they remembered about the interview
Sex object study - outcomes
Outcomes:
Interviewer ratings
- How sexually motivated did you find the subject?
- How much did you feel that he was looking at your body?
Ps memory for interviewer
• a) her physical characteristics
• b) what she said
Interpersonal distance
Overall design of sex object study
2x2
Prime Control Schematic Aschematic
Sex object study results
Schematic men in the primed condition were rated as higher in
Sexual motivation
Less interpersonal distance
Did more physical recall at the remembering interview stage
Were very unlikely to remember much about the professional attributes of the woman
This is an interaction effect
Effects of gender schematic
mental
We have seen evidence that when gender schemas are activated they change the way men act in some circumstances
BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS
OF PRIMING MEN TO
VIEW WOMEN AS
SEXUAL OBJECTS
Study
Is a study
THE LIKELIHOOD TO SEXUALLY
HARASS SCALE
Imagine that you are the news director for a local television
station. Due to some personnel changes you have to replace
the anchor woman for the evening news. Your policy has always been to promote reporters from within your
organization when an anchor woman vacancy occurs. There are several female reporters from which to choose. All are
young, attractive, and apparently qualified for the job. One reporter, Loretta W., is someone whom you personally find very sexy. You initially hired her, giving her a first break in the TV news business. How likely are you to do the following
things in this situation?
…take advantage of the situation and harass the woman?
LSH scale (1987)
Behavioral effects sexual object study set up
Measure chronic accessibility (pre-measure)
• Likelihood to Sexually Harass Scale
Brought “lows” and “highs” back for market research survey
• Prime with Sexist Ads, or not…
More time: control subject for word association study?
(manipulation check for prime)
Do a lexical reaction time task, checks if they were primed
Behavioral effects sexual object study design
2x2
Is 2x2
LSH Prime Control
Low
High
Behavioral effects sexual object results of lexical task
check to see if primed
Those primed with sexist words were much quicker to react to sexist words
Those primed reacted much slower to non-sexist words (info that counteracted the prime was inhibited)
So the prime worked
Behavioral effects sexual object
Behavioral task 1
Interview
Ptps asked if they could help evaluate a female job candidate in an interview
Finish early—help interview and evaluate female job
candidate as favor?
Given a set of 14 questions
7 pretested as more sexist…
Ps select 7 questions to ask interviewee
Behavioral effects sexual object study DVs
7 Things
(1) Proximity (coded)
(2) Sexualized Behavior (confederate rating and coders)
Confederate’s ratings using the Sexual Motivation Index Judges view videotapes and rate for: • sexual staring • sexual motivation • sexism
(3) Memory about appearance
(4) Memory about qualifications
(5) Competence of the confederate
(6) Friendliness and attractiveness of confederate
(7) Heritability
Behavioral effects sexual object study
Results - Accessibility effects
CHRONIC (HIGH LSH) More: -Sexist Questions -Proximity -Sexualized behavior -Attractiveness*
CONTEXTUAL (ADS) More: -Sexist Questions -Proximity -Sexualized behavior -Friendliness & competence ê - physical appearance recollections
LESS qualifications recollections
- The women found the high LSH group more attractive
Behavioral effects sexual object study
Results - Heritability
High LSH in primed condition were more likely to hire her than any other group
They also said they would pay them more money than the other groups
OBJECTIFICATION THEORY
American culture socializes women to adopt
observers’ perspectives of
their physical selves
Value and think about body from third person
perspective
objectification
• When people’s bodies, body parts, or sexual functions are separated from their identity and they are reduced to the status of mere instruments or regarded as capable of
representing them
Consequences
Self objectification theory study
Body image
A consequence of objectification is
Self-objectification (excessive appearance monitoring):
1. Body shame
Shown sexist adds and control. Asked to rathe their body size on a scale
Women respond to sexist ads by finding their own body larger (men find themselves smaller)
After asked to eat something to help evaluate it, those in sexist add condition ate less.
Self objectification theory study
Consumed attentional resources
Consumed attentional resources
diminished mental performance
40 men and 42 women
Trait self-objectification (concern with appearance)
Study on “emotions and consumer behavior”
• Evaluate scent, clothing and food
Manipulate state self-objectification:
• Try on swimsuit
• Try on sweater
• Alone in a dressing room with a full length mirror
• “Evaluate the clothing as if you were on an actual shopping trip, deciding whether or not to purchase it”
Measured body shame (while wearing garment)
RESULTS
Main effect of experimental condition (shame, guilt, feeling silly)
But, experimental condition produced unique emotional
response in men and women:
• Men: “sheepish, bashful, shy”
• Women: “disgust, distaste, revulsion”
Body shame also predicted restrained eating in women
THEN
Told to keep wearing garment and do a study (in amongst this was a math exam)
There was no effect on the scores of men
Women in the garment performed much worse in the swimsuit condition
DOES STEREOTYPING
NEED TO BE OVERT TO
UNDERMINE BEHAVIOR?
APPARENTLY NOT
INTERACTING WITH SEXIST MEN
Study 1: Male engineering students interact with female
confederate in “work-related” interaction
Study 2: Sexist behaviour and test scores
Study 3: Sexist behaviour done by male confederates and real female engineering scores
STUDY 1
Male engineering students interact with female
confederate in “work-related” interaction
Conversation about engineering
Was a merger between HP and another company going on at the time and the HP CEO was a woman
“Do you think Ms. Fiona is doing a good job handling merger?”
RESULTS
Sexist men exhibit more subtle dominance (e.g. posture) and sexual interest
Do these behaviors cue women to think that they will be devalued and viewed stereotypically
STUDY 2
Male and female engineering student dyads
Conversation about engineering
• “Do you think Ms. Fiona is doing a good job handling
merger?”
Complete engineering test (“indicator of aptitude and
ability”)
RESULTS
Male’s sexism negatively predicted women’s test scores
STUDY 3
Replicated Study 2 with experimental manipulation of sexism (male confederate, displaying sexist cues, or not) and real world female engineers
THIS LAST ONE SHOWS POISSIBLE CASUALITY
INTERACTING WITH SEXIST MEN
Interesting findings
Interestingly, women in sexist condition indicate GREATER attraction and more positive feelings about interaction
• Attraction and feelings about interaction do not explain performance effects!
Perceptions of dominance and interest did not predict
performance
Sexist behavior does not (need to) make overt impression
Nor does it need to be unpleasant
Women detect cues from sexist men’s behavior that they’re at risk of being stereotyped
Experience stereotype threat and underperform in stereotype domain
STEREOTYPE THREAT IN APPLIED SETTINGS
test scores
Men outperform women on the SAT (College Board, 2005), the LSAT (Dalessandro, Stilwell & Reese, 2005), MCAT;
Association of American Medical Colleges, 2005), DAT (American Dental Association, 2005), and GRE (Educational Testing Service, 1999)
Two real-life high stakes tests:
• calculus AP exam (N=2000)
• computerized placement test (N=1300)
Altered administration:
Demographics (including sex)
G1: Before
G2: After
RESULTS
Girls with info before perform sig worse than girls with info after
