Variation in the Application of the “Promiscuous Female” Stereotype and the Nature of the Application Domain: Influences on Sexual Harassment Judgments after Exposure to the Jerry Springer Show

Abstract

This study was designed to explore how the impact of exposure to a few stereotyped group members can be mediated by individual variation in stereotype application to other group members. When compared to participants exposed to nonpromiscuous women on an episode of the Jerry Springer Show, those exposed to promiscuous women perceived a victim of sexual harassment as less traumatized and more responsible for the event. In addition, exposure condition had no impact on judgments when the man physically touched the victim. Conversely, when he made a verbal comment or verbal request, those in the promiscuous condition reported perceptions of less victim trauma and made greater attributions of victim responsibility. The findings also indicate that the effects of exposure to the promiscuous woman depictions were mediated by individual variation in attributions of victim promiscuity. Finally, activation of the promiscuous female stereotype was also shown to have generalized to judgments of women in a nonsexual domain.KEY WORDS: female stereotype; stereotype mediation; media images.Social scientists have devoted an extensive amount of attention to the theoretical and practical consequences of exposure to various types of stereotypical trait information. Mere exposure to a symbol or representative of a social category can be sufficient to activate stereotypic associations, often without awareness or attention (Bargh, 1988). Current theorists, however, emphasize a distinction between stereotype activation and stereotype application. Activation refers to the enhanced accessibility of stereotype-associated information, whereas application refers to the use of this stereotypical informa-

Effects of exposure to sex-stereotyped video game characters on tolerance of sexual harassment

“…Past research has shown that when sexual harassment involved a man touching a woman, ratings of the harassment tended to be uniformly high, whereas verbal harassment scores were affected by exposure to negative female stereotypes in the media (Ferguson et al, 2005). The scenario employed in our study (see Appendix) involved a male professor putting his hand on a female student's thigh.…”

“…We also measured chronic exposure to video game violence and related this factor to sexual harassment judgments and rape-supportive attitudes. Ferguson et al (2005) noted ''there has been little empirical research on how the mass media might affect perceptions of sexual harassment" (p. 479). To add to this media effects literature, we designed our own instrument for the present study, which included a real-life account of sexual harassment between a college student and a professor and a series of judgments about this account.…”

Moral disengagement as a self-regulatory process in sexual harassment perpetration at work: A preliminary conceptualization

“…Moreover, endorsement of rape and sexual harassment myths is predictive of harassing behavior (e.g., Begany & Milburn, 2002;Diehl et al, 2012;Pryor, 1987). Yet, only a few studies to date have directly examined blame attribution in response to sexual harassment (De Judicibus & McCabe, 2001;Ferguson et al, 2005;Jensen & Gutek, 1982;Key & Ridge, 2011;ValentineFrench & Radtke, 1989). The available research has documented, in particular, that targets of sexual harassment are more likely to be blamed by employees rather than students (De Judicibus & McCabe, 2001), and by those holding more traditional sex role beliefs (Jensen & Gutek, 1982;Valentine-French & Radtke, 1989), and sexist attitudes (De Judicibus & McCabe, 2001).…”

At the End of the Day, Are Screens Good or Bad for You? A Critical Review of Randomized Controlled Studies

“…After exposure to the sexual movie, male participants presented with a rape story thought that the victim enjoyed what happened to her. Ferguson et al (T. Ferguson et al, 2005) showed participants clips depicting either promiscuous or non-promiscuous women.…”