In two studies with women living in India (Study 1, n ¼ 177) and African American women in the United States (Study 2, n ¼ 120), we investigated whether skin-tone surveillance, which theoretically is a manifestation of self-objectification, predicted greater skin-color dissatisfaction and greater skin-bleaching behavior. Given the existence of colorism in Indian and American societies, we expected that ideologies that rationalize and perpetuate the status quo would moderate the proposed relations. Results were consistent with objectification theory and system justification theory. The positive relation between skin-tone surveillance and skin-color dissatisfaction was weaker among women of color who more strongly (vs. weakly) endorsed system justifying ideologies, and the positive relation between skin-tone surveillance and skin-bleaching behavior was stronger among women of color who more strongly (vs. weakly) endorsed system justifying ideologies. Our results suggest that self-objectification theorists and researchers should consider culturally specific manifestations of selfobjectification as well as protective and legitimating effects of system justifying ideologies. We encourage clinicians and policy makers to use public campaigns and individual-level interventions to target the norms and motivations underlying skin-bleaching.
Although intergroup contact reduces prejudice generally, there are growing calls to examine contextual factors in conjunction with contact. Such an approach benefits from more sophisticated analytic approaches, such as multilevel modelling, that take both the individual (Level-1) and their environment (Level-2) into account. Using this approach, we go beyond attitudes to assess both individual and contextual predictors of support for gay/ lesbian and transgender rights. Using a sample of participants across 77 countries, results revealed that personal gay/lesbian contact (Level-1) and living in a country with more gay/ lesbian rights (Level-2) predicted greater support for gay/lesbian rights (n = 71,991). Likewise, transgender contact and living in a country with more transgender rights predicted more support for transgender rights (n = 70,056). Cross-level interactions are also presented and discussed. Overall, findings highlight the importance of both individual and contextual factors in predicting support for LGBT communities.Considerable research suggests that personal contact with an outgroup reduces prejudice towards that group (e.g., Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). However, there are growing calls to examine the role of contextual factors, such as the laws in one's country, in conjunction with contact effects (e.g., Hodson, Costello, & MacInnis, 2013;Pettigrew, 2008) to predict outgroup attitudes. This may be particularly important in the context of LGBT contact, as there remains considerable cross-national variability in legislative support for LGBT communities; that is, some countries have adopted pro-LGBT policies more readily than others. Despite an overall global increase in LGBT rights and greater acceptance of LGBT people among individuals (e.g.
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