Injunctive norms, sexism, and misogyny network activation among men.

Abstract

This study examined the interactive effects of gender-relevant injunctive norm exposure and sexist attitudes on men's reactance, measured via activation of cognitive networks related to anger and misogyny. Heterosexual adult male students (N ϭ 144) at a large, public university in the Southeastern United States completed measures of hostile and benevolent sexism and were randomly assigned to read fictional injunctive norms promoting paternalistic, misogynistic, or egalitarian treatment of women, or control norms. Anger and misogyny network activation were assessed via response latencies during a lexical decision task that required participants to distinguish emotion, misogyny, or neutral words from nonwords. Exposure to paternalism norms-which emphasize men's obligation to protect and provide for women-heightened activation of misogyny networks, but not anger or other emotion networks, among men high in hostile sexism (controlling for benevolent sexism) and among men high in benevolent sexism (controlling for hostile sexism). Findings suggest that messages encouraging chivalrous behavior toward women activate cognitive networks of misogynistic concepts in subsets of high-sexism men. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding individual differences in men's reactions to certain sexual assault messages. Public Significance StatementFollowing exposure to messages promoting protective, chivalrous treatment of women, men high in sexism displayed heightened cognitive accessibility of misogynistic words (but not anger words). This cognitive reaction may shed light on why some high-sexism men respond to college sexual assault prevention interventions with increases, rather than decreases, in sexually aggressive behavior.

The Role of Objectification in College Women’s Substance Misuse and Sexual Risk

“…College health professionals should consider organizational prevention efforts to reduce substance use and sexual risk. In the context of sexist experiences that may increase health risk behaviors, prevention programs that target students in extracurricular clubs and organizations, sports teams, and Greek organizations could endeavor to change social norms that promote paternalistic or misogynistic treatment of women and encourage risky behaviors (Bosson et al, 2020). Some scholars have identified social justice initiatives that increase students’ advocacy skills as powerful organizational interventions (e.g., Szymanski & Carr, 2011).…”

The role of psychological inflexibility and perspective taking in anti-racism and anti-sexism

“…While this conscious challenging of racism and sexism at both an individual and systemic level has been emphasized, the best methods for promoting such behaviors continue to be debated. Though discriminatory behaviors have historically been thought to rely on the holding of underlying prejudiced attitudes or beliefs (Schütz & Six, 1996), more recent research has emphasized the role of psychological factors (e.g., Bosson et al, 2020;Donald et al, 2019;McManus et al, 2019;Patterson et al, 2018). For instance, white individuals who report having non-racist attitudes may still have aversive emotional reactions to racial outgroups, which can lead to inhibitions in helping behaviors (McManus et al, 2019).…”

“…Additionally, while the holding of explicit sexist beliefs has been shown to predict sexist behavior (de Oliveira Laux et al, 2015), interventions promoting anti-sexism in men may elicit strong emotional reactions (e.g. anger) and produce a "boomerang" effect, or unintended increases in sexist behaviors (Bosson et al, 2020). Therefore, understanding other psychological components of prejudice, particularly those related to emotional processes, is critical in designing effective strategies to increase antiracist and anti-sexist actions.…”

Adolescents, Ambivalent Sexism and Social Networks, a Conditioning Factor in the Healthcare of Women

“…During adolescence, we can observe that ambivalent sexism is transmitted through social networks. This occurs in a number of ways [13], for instance in writing via hashtags, likes, videogames, music and images, in addition to through expressive instrumentalised means, above all through mobile phones [14]. In the adolescent population, this type of sexism, through social networks, takes on special characteristics with regards to the rapid and direct dissemination of material, which quickly becomes viral in adolescent groups [15].…”