Individual Differences in Reactions to Sexist Humor

Thomas, Caroline A.; Esses, Victoria M.

doi:10.1177/1368430204039975

Cited by 89 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Eyssel and Bohner 2007;Hunt and Gonsalkorale 2014). Several studies demonstrate that individuals high in hostile sexism enjoy sexist humour significantly more than individuals low in hostile sexism (Greenwood and Isbell 2002;LaFrance andWoodzicka 1998, Thomae andViki 2013) and are more willing to repeat female-disparaging jokes to friends (Thomas and Esses 2004). These findings comfortably fit with Ford and Ferguson's (2004) and Woodzicka and Ford's (2010) conceptualisation of sexist humour as a 'releaser' of prejudice.…”

Section: Responses To Sexist Humour As a Function Of Gender Attitudessupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Similarly, Thomas and Esses (2004) demonstrated that hostile sexism positively correlated with the perceived funniness and negatively correlated with the perceived offensiveness of sexist jokes, as well as men's likelihood to repeat female disparaging jokes. Irrespective of their own sex, participants who held pro-feminist attitudes showed lower appreciation for sexist cartoons, independently of whether the target of the disparagement was male or female (Henkin and Fish 1986).…”

Section: Using a Staged Recorded Conversation Between Two Male Confedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men’s in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame

Thomae

Pina

2015

Humor

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Section: Responses To Sexist Humour As a Function Of Gender Attitudessupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Using a Staged Recorded Conversation Between Two Male Confedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men’s in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame

Thomae

Pina

2015

Humor

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“…As expected RWA did not predict reactions to disparaging outgroup (or neutral) jokes (see Thomas & Esses, 2004). UO was negatively related with Mexican joke reactions, as predicted.…”

Section: Relations Between Chb and Intergroup-relevant Variablessupporting

confidence: 67%

A joke is just a joke (except when it isn't): Cavalier humor beliefs facilitate the expression of group dominance motives.

Hodson¹,

Rush²,

MacInnis³

2010

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Past research reveals preferences for disparaging humor directed toward disliked others. The group-dominance model of humor appreciation introduces the hypothesis that beyond initial outgroup attitudes, social dominance motives predict favorable reactions toward jokes targeting low-status outgroups through a subtle hierarchy-enhancing legitimizing myth: cavalier humor beliefs (CHB). CHB characterizes a lighthearted, less serious, uncritical, and nonchalant approach toward humor that dismisses potential harm to others. As expected, CHB incorporates both positive (affiliative) and negative (aggressive) humor functions that together mask biases, correlating positively with prejudices and prejudice-correlates (including social dominance orientation [SDO]; Study 1). Across 3 studies in Canada, SDO and CHB predicted favorable reactions toward jokes disparaging Mexicans (low-status outgroup). Neither individual difference predicted neutral (nonintergroup) joke reactions, despite the jokes being equally amusing and more inoffensive overall. In Study 2, joke content targeting Mexicans, Americans (high-status outgroup), and Canadians (high-status ingroup) was systematically controlled. Although Canadians preferred jokes labeled as anti-American overall, an underlying subtle pattern emerged at the individual-difference level: Only those higher in SDO appreciated those jokes labeled as anti-Mexican (reflecting social dominance motives). In all studies, SDO predicted favorable reactions toward low-status outgroup jokes almost entirely through heightened CHB, a subtle yet potent legitimatizing myth that "justifies" expressions of group dominance motives. In Study 3, a pretest-posttest design revealed the implications of this justification process: CHB contributes to trivializing outgroup jokes as inoffensive (harmless), subsequently contributing to postjoke prejudice. The implications for humor in intergroup contexts are considered.

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“…Greenwood and Isbell (2002) found that men and women high in hostile sexism-that is, antagonism toward women (Glick and Fiske 1996)-were more amused by and less offended by Bdumb blonde^jokes than were men and women low in hostile sexism. In similar fashion, Thomas and Esses (2004) found that men reported more enjoyment of femaledisparaging jokes and a greater likelihood of telling those jokes insofar as they were high in hostile sexism.…”

Section: Sexist Humor As An Expression Of Sexismmentioning

confidence: 58%

What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes

2016

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Sexist humor may be more difficult to confront than serious expressions of sexism because humor disguises the biased nature of the remark. The present research investigated whether delivering a sexist remark as a joke, compared to a serious statement, tempered perceptions that the speaker was sexist which, in turn, made women less likely to confront. Using a computer-mediated instant messaging paradigm, women were randomly assigned to receive the same sexist remark phrased either in a serious manner or as a joke. We recorded how women actually responded to the sexist remark and coded for confrontation. In Experiments 1 (195 women) and 2 (134 women) we found that humor decreased perceptions that the speaker was sexist. Furthermore, as perceptions that the perpetrator was sexist decreased, women's confronting also decreased. Experiment 2 demonstrated an additional consequence of reducing the perceived sexism of the perpetrator-it increased tolerance of sexist behavior perpetrated against an individual woman and sexual harassment more generally. Interestingly, the indirect effects only appeared when women at least moderately endorsed hostile sexism. For hostile sexists, failure to identify sexism reduced confrontation and increased tolerance for sexual harassment and sexist behavior. Contrary to popular belief, humor can actually make sexist messages more dangerous and difficult to confront than serious remarks.A woman bank teller accidentally short-circuited a computer system that monitored the bank's transactions. After this incident, many employees told jokes about women's alleged inferiority with technology. At a subsequent meeting, a woman secretary accidentally unplugged a slide projector with her foot as she walked by. A man supervisor joked to his colleagues about a Bwoman's touch,^which elicited laughter from other supervisors (Kahn 1989). Incidents like theseplayful, demeaning, group-based comments cloaked in humor-are among the most common ways that women experience sexism in the workplace and other settings (Pryor 1995).Sexist humor has been defined as humor that denigrates, demeans, stereotypes, oppresses, or objectifies women (Bemiller and Schneider 2010;Greenwood and Isbell 2002;LaFrance and Woodzicka 1998). How should women respond to such playful, often funny, but nonetheless belittling instances of sexist humor? In the present research we contend that sexist humor presents a unique challenge for people who may wish to engage in confrontation because the meaning of humorous sexist remarks, and the intentions of their owners, are often unclear. Accordingly, we investigated the degree to which delivering a sexist remark as a joke, compared to a serious statement, affected women's perception that the perpetrator was sexist, the likelihood that they would confront the sexist remark, and their tolerance of a subsequently encountered incident of sexist behavior, as well as their tolerance of sexual harassment, a more general, normative pattern of gender discrimination against women (Equal Employment

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Individual Differences in Reactions to Sexist Humor

Cited by 89 publications

References 19 publications

Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men’s in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame

Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men’s in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame

A joke is just a joke (except when it isn't): Cavalier humor beliefs facilitate the expression of group dominance motives.

What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes

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