Sexist Humor and Rape Proclivity: The Moderating Role of Joke Teller Gender and Severity of Sexual Assault

Abstract

Three experiments examined the effect of sexist humor on men's self-reported rape proclivity (RP). Pilot study demonstrated that people differentiate the five rape scenarios of Bohner et al.'s. RP Scale based on the degree of physical violence perpetrated against the victim. Experiment 1 demonstrated that men higher in hostile sexism report greater RP upon exposure to sexist jokes when a woman (vs. a man) delivers them, and that this effect is limited to rape scenarios depicting a moderate versus a high level of physical violence. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that the relationship between hostile sexism and rape proclivity in response to a moderately violent rape scenario after exposure to sexist humor generalizes beyond women in the immediate humor context to women as a whole.

Sexist Humor and Sexual Aggression Against Women: When Sexist Men Act According to Their Own Values or Social Pressures

“…In this regard, it has been established that sexist humor creates a norm of tolerance of sexual discrimination, which in turn leads to a higher tolerance of sexist events (Ford, 2000), the acceptance of societal sexism (Ford et al, 2013), and a greater willingness to discriminate against women (Ford et al, 2008). Most notably for the present research, men exposed to sexist humor have reported greater propensity to commit sexual violence against women, including rape (Romero-Sánchez et al, 2010, 2017), particularly when the male recipients of this type of humor exhibit sexist attitudes (e.g., Thomae & Viki, 2013).…”

“…Specifically, in situations in which prejudicial behavior is openly recriminated or in which non-tolerance to it is likely, prejudiced individuals will not express themselves freely but will instead let themselves be influenced by the social norm of “not being prejudiced.” However, disparagement humor in general, and sexist humor in particular, seem to act as a cue that makes it possible to express negative attitudes. Specifically, applying the prejudiced norm theory to the particular case of sexist humor, men who harbor hostile attitudes toward women are likely to see this type of humor as a way to freely express their prejudice without fear of social reprobation because it is “only a joke.” It must be noted at this point that disparagement humor against women in itself does not promote the acceptance and/or expression of prejudice communicated through humor in all men; instead, it is men with certain attitudes (i.e., hostile sexism) who are most influenced by this type of humor (e.g., Romero-Sánchez et al, 2010, 2017).…”

“…In addition to the known positive relationship between hostile sexism and rape proclivity, these studies found that exposure to sexist (vs. neutral) humor was only correlated with higher self-reported rape proclivity in participants high in hostile sexism and who showed a lower rejection of this type of humor. Furthermore, Romero-Sánchez et al (2017) showed that the relationship between hostile sexism and rape proclivity after exposure to sexist humor reaches beyond a specific woman in the immediate humor context to encompass women as a whole, which suggests that this type of humor might contribute to a broader culture of rape and sexual violence against women (K. M. Ryan & Kanjorski, 1998).…”

“…A number of studies have found that individuals high in hostile sexism tend to enjoy sexist humor more, exhibiting greater funniness and less aversiveness to this type of humor (Ford et al, 2008;LaFrance & Woodzicka, 1998;Thomae & Viki, 2013). In addition, recent research has shown that sexist humor also alters the boundaries between inappropriate and acceptable behavior, increasing acceptance of the former; such studies have shown that this applies both to subtle expressions of sexist views and to sexually violent behaviors (Romero-Sánchez et al, 2017;Thomae & Viki, 2013;Viki et al, 2007). A pioneering example of this can be found in the study by K. M. Ryan and Kanjorski (1998).…”

Situational and Dispositional Factors in Rape Cognitions: The Roles of Social Media and the Dark Triad Traits

“…These are typically seen as more acceptable than overt aggressive sexism or gendertrolling ( Mallett et al, 2016 ), and are sometimes used to defend sexist attitudes and behavior ( Fox et al, 2015 ). Although seemingly harmless, sexist humor is also detrimental in creating social norms that reinforce gender inequality, which may function as a trigger for increased acceptance of rape ( Romero-Sánchez et al, 2017 ; Thomae & Viki, 2013 ).…”