Does the Gender of Your Friends Matter for Sexist Attitudes About Women?

Abstract

Building upon two complimentary theoretical frameworks related to group relations (i.e., Intergroup Contact Theory and Peer Exposure), we examined how emerging adults’ friendships with men and women were related to their hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and sexual objectification attitudes. Participants were 212 college students ( M age = 20.20 years, SD = 2.08; 62% female; 58% White) from a large southwestern university. Results provided support for Intergroup Contact Theory and for a Peer Exposure effect, but only for men. Specifically, for men, having female friends was negatively associated with hostile sexism, and having male friends was positively related to hostile sexism; neither friendship type related to benevolent sexism. For women, no significant relations between friends and attitudes were found; this is likely due to the assessed attitudes being about women (their own group). The findings suggest a promising pathway to mitigate gender-based prejudice for men through cross-gender friendships.

When intergroup contact correlates with gender‐prejudice beliefs of emerging adults

“…Contact with same-gender friends was also associated with gender prejudice, specifically with more benevolent sexism, more gender-inequality beliefs, and, only for men, with more hostile sexism. These findings could be explained in light of the hydraulic effects also found in previous research on intergroup contact showing that when outgroup contact increases, ingroup contact decreases, and that having more outgroup contact decreased prejudice, whereas having more ingroup contact increased prejudice ( Jenkins et al, 2022;Levin et al, 2003). The current study indeed found a negative association between the amount of contact with same-gender and other-gender friends, and having more outgroup friends decreased (some) gender-prejudice beliefs, whereas having more ingroup friends increased gender-prejudice beliefs.…”

“…Friendships also provide an interesting context to examine effects of both outgroup and ingroup contact. Previous research demonstrated so-called 'hydraulic effects' evident in a negative association between the numbers of ingroup and outgroup friends, and more outgroup friends, but less ingroup friends, being associated with less prejudiced beliefs ( Jenkins et al, 2022;Levin et al, 2003).…”

“…In line with Allport's hypothesis (1954), collaborative contact of men with female colleagues in the armed forces reduced prejudice against women (Finseraas et al, 2016). Similarly, having more female friends and less male friends was associated with lower hostile sexism, but not to benevolent sexism, in emerging adult men (Jenkins et al, 2022). Moreover, positive contact with counter‐stereotypical women has been associated with less hostile sexism in adult men and women (Taschler & West, 2017).…”

“…Specifically, other‐gender friendships become more important compared to childhood and adolescence (Mehta & Strough, 2009). Yet, same‐gender friendships are still more common than other‐gender friendships (DiDonato & Strough, 2013; Jenkins et al, 2022; Mehta et al, 2017). For instance, approximately 70% of close friends nominated by college students were of the same gender (DiDonato & Strough, 2013; Mehta et al, 2017).…”

“…This increase in sexist attitudes might however be specific for romantic relationships. Importantly, there are also some studies that do not find associations between positive same‐gender or other‐gender contact or friendships with either hostile or benevolent sexism for both men and women (Jenkins et al, 2022; Kordyaka et al, 2022; Lenton & Webber, 2006). To provide insight into the inconsistent findings in previous research, the current study examined contact with the other gender via friendships as well as heterosexual romantic relationships.…”