Gender and body images: Stereotypes and realities

Body image is a multidimensional construct defined by persons' perceptions of and attitudes about their body. Although the sexes differ on some parameters of body image, the present experiment was conducted to determine the manner and extent to which the sexes are socially perceived to differ. Male and female college students (n=72) completed a standardized body-image inventory, the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, in response to three counterbalanced instructional contexts—for self, for the typical male peer, and for the typical female peer. As compared with the actual, often modest, sex differences found on several body-image indices, the sexes were perceived to differ substantially on all measured aspects of body image. The stereotypical misperception of the sexes was clearly a more disparaging distortion of the body image of women than of men. The findings were interpreted in relation to possible contributing factors and directions for future research.The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance of Alana Ellington, Cheryl Kissel, Albert Hunter, and Wendy Weaver in the completion of this research.     

Effects of Salience of Consciousness-Raising Information on Perceptions of Acquaintance versus Stranger Rape

In the present study the effects of salience of consciousness-raising information on the perception of acquaintance vs. stranger rape were focused on. One half of the subjects were exposed to information which emphasized the inappropriateness of sexual inequality (salient condition), while the other half were exposed to no such information (nonsalient condition). Subsequently, subjects read a passage which depicted an acquaintance rape or a stranger rape. The results indicated that those subjects in the salient condition perceived the victim more favorable and reported a lesser likelihood to commit rape (male subjects) than those in the nonsalient condition. Additionally, those in the stranger rape condition perceived the victim more favorably and reported a lesser likelihood of committing rape (male subjects) than those in the acquaintance rape condition. Finally, there was a significant interaction between salience and type of rape. To amplify, when subjects read the stranger rape passage, perceptions did not vary as a function of salience. On the other hand, when subjects read the acquaintance rape passage, those in the salient condition perceived the victim more favoraby and reported a lesser likelihood of committing rape than those in the nonsalient condition.     

Assessing the effects of factors that might underlie the differential perception of acquaintance and stranger rape

There is evidence to suggest that in an acquaintance rape the victim is perceived less favorably and there is more leniency toward the perpetrator than in a stranger rape. The purpose of the present study was to assess the perceptual effects of factors that might underlie this differential perception. Victim-perpetrator attraction and ambiguity in victim's desire for intercourse were varied since both are often perceived to occur at a much higher frequency in acquaintance rape than stranger rape. The design of the study was a 3 (victim-perpetrator attraction — minimal, moderate, maximal) × 2 (ambiguity in desire for intercourse — ambiguous, relatively unambiguous) × 2 (gender of subject — male, female) factorial. The results indicated that ambiguity had a significant effect on perceptions. More specifically, perception tended to be less favorable toward the victim and more lenient toward the defendant when there was ambiguity in the victim's desire for intercourse. Additionally, when compared to females, males' perception tended to be less favorable toward the victim and more lenient toward the perpetrator. There were no other significant main effects or interactions. The implications of these findings for the differential perception of acquaintance and stranger rape are discussed.     

‘There's no smoke without fire’: Are male ex‐partners perceived as more ‘entitled’ to stalk than acquaintance or stranger stalkers?

In a stalking scenario, the prior relationship between and the gender of stalker and victim were systematically manipulated in order to judge culpability and consequences for the persons involved. Written vignettes were presented to 168 participants who responded via seven Likert scales. Stalker‐victim relationship had three levels: ex‐partner, acquaintance and stranger. In accordance with the ‘Just World’ hypothesis (Lerner, 1980), the victim was judged as having greater responsibility for the stalking when their harasser was an ex‐partner or a prior acquaintance rather than a stranger, and police intervention was felt to be most necessary when the stalker was a stranger. Sex of stalker and victim was manipulated, and the following comparisons proved significant: when the perpetrator was male, bodily injury to the victim was seen as more likely and police intervention as more necessary than when the perpetrator was female; and male victims were viewed as more responsible for the scenario and as possessing greater powers to alleviate it. The Just World hypothesis and gender stereotypes provide a plausible account for these findings. Future research should determine whether criminal convictions show similar biases towards convicting male and stranger stalkers more often than female and ex‐partner stalkers.     

Lending a hand: social regulation of the neural response to threat

Social contact promotes enhanced health and well-being, likely as a function of the social regulation of emotional responding in the face of various life stressors. For this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 16 married women were subjected to the threat of electric shock while holding their husband's hand, the hand of an anonymous male experimenter, or no hand at all. Results indicated a pervasive attenuation of activation in the neural systems supporting emotional and behavioral threat responses when the women held their husband's hand. A more limited attenuation of activation in these systems occurred when they held the hand of a stranger. Most strikingly, the effects of spousal hand-holding on neural threat responses varied as a function of marital quality, with higher marital quality predicting less threat-related neural activation in the right anterior insula, superior frontal gyrus, and hypothalamus during spousal, but not stranger, hand-holding.     

Beliefs About the Causes of Four Types of Rape

Beliefs about the causes of stranger, acquaintance, date, and partner rape and treatment and punishment for the types of rape were examined among college students. Three causes of rape—victim precipitation, male pathology, and male hostility—varied as a function of the type of rape, with female precipitation higher for partner and date rape than for acquaintance and stranger rape. Male hostility and male pathology were lowest for partner rape. These findings suggest that the perceived causes of rape that blame the perpetrator or victim, rather than societal or general causes of rape, vary with the type of rape. Recommended punishment varied directly with the closeness of the relationship. Additionally, gender differences and interactions of gender and ethnicity (Caucasian and Hispanics) were found across type of rape.     

Loomingness and the Fear of AIDS: Perceptions of Motion and Menace

The authors examined the role of "perceived loomingness" in fear of HIV. Perceived loomingness refers to perceptions of rapid forward movement and instantaneous changes in the distance and danger of a potential threat (Riskind, 1992). One hundred and twenty undergraduates rated vignettes of two public encounters with an HIV-positive stranger. High-HIV fear subjects perceived greater loomingness and danger in these vignettes than did low-HIV fear subjects. Regression analyses that tested for a mediated model confirmed that the perceptions of loomingness may spark threat cognitions (such as the probability and imminence of harm), which, in turn, lead to fear. As predicted by the harm-looming model, loomingness also had some effects on fear that were not mediated by such standard threat cognitions.     

"Having it all": women's perception of impact of female promotion on threat of domestic violence

This study involved 219 women participants. The main aim of the present study is to examine the perceived consequences of a work-related promotion for the female partner in a heterosexual relationship. The impact of the promotion was manipulated - both partners share paid and domestic work, the male partner taking responsibility for all the domestic work - or female partner continuing to do all the domestic work, as well as the male partner's sexist ideology. Finally, the study examined gender ideology of participants. The results showed that participants felt that violence was more likely when the male partner was presented as sexist and that this was due to a perception of threat on the part of the male partner.     

No Doubt About It: When Doubtful Role Models Undermine Men's and Women's Math Performance Under Threat

ABSTRACT

Past work has shown that female role models are effective buffers against stereotype threat. The present research examines the boundary conditions of this role model effect. Specifically, we argue that female role models should avoid expressing doubt about their math abilities; otherwise they may cease to buffer women from stereotype threat. For men, a non-doubtful male role model should be seen as threatening, thus harming performance. A doubtful male role model, however, should be seen as non-threatening, thus allowing men to perform up to their ability in math. To test this reasoning, men and women were exposed to either an outgroup or ingroup role model who either expressed doubt or did not. Participants then took a math exam under stereotype threat conditions. As expected, doubtful ingroup role models hurt women, but helped men's performance. Outgroup role models' expressed doubt had no differential effect on performance. We also show that expressions of doubt take on a different meaning when expressed by a female rather than a male role model.     

Sex Differences in Evaluations of Female and Male Victims' Responses to Assault

In an investigation of perceptions of victim response to assult, 84 female and 70 male subjects read a narrative in which either a female or a male victim was roughly assaulted by a male stranger. The victim was described as either offering no resistance, resisting in a verbally aggressive manner, or resisting in a physically aggressive manner. Results of 3 × 2 × 2 ANOVA's revealed that women and men expected different outcomes for aggressive victim resistance. Women anticipated a worse outcome than did men, especially for victims who resisted. Men expected the most favorable outcome for the victim when he or she fought with the assailant; women expected the most positive outcome with nonresistance, especially for female victims. Female victims were seen as much more likely than male victims to be raped by the assailant. Women rated rape as a more likely outcome for physically aggressive victims while men considered rape least likely when the victim fought back. Sex differences in evaluations of victim resistance are discussed in terms of identification and empathy with the victim, goals of the victim's response strategy, and the expected effectiveness of aggressive and nonaggressive reactions to attack.     

Patriotism,Attributions for the 9/11 Attacks,and Support for War: Then and Now

College students rated the importance of 10 possible causes of the 9/11 attacks in October 2001 (24 male and 86 female participants) and in October 2005 (53 male and 112 female participants) and completed measures of blind and constructive patriotism. Feelings of threat and perceived responsibility for the attacks and for anti-American hostility were also examined. A principal components analysis of the 10 causes suggested 3 causal categories distinguished by responsibility. The blindly patriotic were less likely to endorse U.S. foreign policy as a cause of the attacks. The 2005 sample was significantly more likely to perceive the United States as partially responsible for the cause of the attacks and for anti-American hostility than was the 2001 sample and they were lower in blind patriotism. A path model indicates that support for the military action in Afghanistan is negatively related to time and positively related to blind patriotism and perceived responsibility of the terrorists.     

Perceptions of assertive behavior: Sex combination,role appropriateness,and message type

Eighty-four male and 84 female subjects, divided into high, moderate, and low groups on the basis of sex-role stereotyping, watched videotapes of two-person interactions where positive and negative assertive messages were sent by male and female actors to male and female receivers. Subjects rated the level of assertion and the social acceptability of each message. Results indicated that while all messages were rated as relatively assertive, negative messages were perceived as more assertive and less socially acceptable than positive ones. Subjects also rated male senders as more assertive than female senders when the message type was role inappropriate for the subjects but rated female senders as relatively more assertive when the message type was role appropriate for them. Messages from female senders were rated as more socially acceptable than messages from male senders. Finally, messages to male receivers were rated as more acceptable than messages to females, especially by male subjects when the sender was male. Thus, both sex-role stereotypes and situational expectations appear to influence perceptions of level of assertion, and more assertive messages are perceived as less socially appropriate.     

Rape Perceptions as a Function of Gender-Role Traditionality and Victim-Perpetrator Association

Perceptions of stranger, acquaintance, date, andmarital rape scenarios and their relation to observers'gender-role traditionality were examined. PrimarilyCaucasian (81%)male and female undergraduates reported their reactions to one of four rapescenarios, attitudes toward men's and women's genderroles, and tendency toward a socially desirable responsestyle. The marital rape scenario was characterized less often as rape and considered less violent,less of a violation of the victim's rights and lesspsychologically damaging to the victim as compared tothe other scenarios. Observers holding less traditional gender-role stereotypes perceived rapescenarios overall as more serious and were less likelyto blame the victim. Also, an exploratory regressionanalysis revealed that gender did not add significantly to the prediction of rape perceptions beyondthe contribution of gender-role beliefs.     

When Accomplishments Come Back to Haunt You: The Negative Effect of Competence Signals on Women's Performance Evaluations

This research explores the possibility that the very accomplishments that are critical to success during the hiring process (e.g., educational attainment, promotion history) can lead to a drop in future performance evaluations for women. We theorized that evaluators may see such competence signals as a threat to the traditional gender hierarchy, which leads to a negative bias when evaluating women's on‐the‐job performance. In Study 1, we examined this hypothesis among commanding officers in the U.S. military, who gave lower performance ratings to female subordinates whose pay grade approached their own. The same was not true for male subordinates. Studies 2, 3a, and 3b experimentally tested the boundary conditions of this effect using two additional competence signals (educational attainment and past career successes) and 2 different populations. Across these studies, we replicated the negative relationship between competence signal strength and performance evaluations for female subordinates but only under conditions in which the evaluator would be particularly likely to experience gender hierarchy threat. Specifically, it emerged when the evaluator was male and high social‐dominance oriented and when the female subordinate's objective on‐the‐job performance was high. Finally, Study 3a demonstrated how organizations can mitigate this negative bias by using objective (rather than subjective) performance evaluations.     

Sexual harassment under social identity threat: the computer harassment paradigm

Two laboratory experiments investigated the hypothesis that threat to male identity would increase the likelihood of gender harassment. In both experiments, using the computer harassment paradigm, male university students (N=80 in Experiment 1, N=90 in Experiment 2) were exposed to different types of identity threat (legitimacy threat and threat to group value in Experiment 1 and distinctiveness threat and prototypicality threat in Experiment 2) or to no threat and were then given the opportunity to send pornographic material to a virtual female interaction partner. Results show that (a) participants harassed the female interaction partner more when they were exposed to a legitimacy, distinctiveness, or prototypicality threat than to no threat; (b) this was mainly true for highly identified males; and (c) harassment enhanced postexperimental gender identification. Results are interpreted as supporting a social identity account of gender harassment.     

Anxiety and hostility to an "outsider," as moderated by low perceived power

The hostile and anxious responses of young adults to an immigrant (vs. native-born) stranger were examined as a function of participants' self-perceived power. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals with low perceived social power (males, in particular) showed high anxiety toward an "outsider" but more so if that individual was an immigrant (and thus posed an ambiguous threat to their position in the hierarchy). In Study 3, young adult males competed on a reaction time test with an immigrant or native-born rival. With immigrant rivals, males with low perceived social power showed relatively high aggression toward an immigrant rival and derogation of the rival's formidability; however, they showed a more deferential pattern with native-born rivals.     

The female stalker

A study of 143 female stalkers was conducted, part of a large North American sample of stalkers (N=1005) gathered from law enforcement, prosecutorial, and entertainment corporate security files (Mohandie, Meloy, Green McGowan, & Williams, 2006). The typical female stalker was a single, separated, or divorced woman in her mid-30s with a psychiatric diagnosis, most often a mood disorder. She was more likely to pursue a male acquaintance, stranger, or celebrity, rather than a prior sexual intimate. When compared with male stalkers, the female stalkers had significantly less frequent criminal histories, and were significantly less threatening and violent. Their pursuit behavior was less proximity based, and their communications were more benign than those of the males. The average duration of stalking was 17 months, but the modal duration was two months. Stalking recidivism was 50%, with modal time between intervention and re-contacting the victim of one day. Any prior actual relationship (sexual intimate or acquaintance) significantly increased the frequency of threats and violence with large effect sizes for the entire female sample. The most dangerous subgroup was the prior sexually intimate stalkers, of whom the majority both threatened and were physically violent. The least dangerous were the female stalkers of Hollywood celebrities. Two of the McEwan, Mullen, MacKenzie, and Ogloff (2009b) predictor variables for stalking violence among men were externally validated with moderate effect sizes for the women: threats were associated with increased risk of violence, and letter writing was associated with decreased risk of violence.     

Body Image or Body Images?: Comparative,Multidimensional Assessment Among College Students

A major criticism of research on body image concerns the dubious assumptions of the unidimensionality of the construct and the equivalence of body-image measures. Our study of 125 male and female college students compared multiple measurement methods within each of two modalities of body image. (a) perceptual (body-size estimation) and (b) attitudinal (body-image affect and cognition). Clinically relevant indices of psychological adjustment and eating disturbance were included. Results clearly supported the distinction between attitudinal and perceptual modalities of body image and indicated more convergent and discriminant validity for the former than for the latter. Whereas one method of assessing size-estimation accuracy and most body-image attitudes produced relationships with maladjustment, only attitudinal body image and perceptual, self-ideal discrepancy measures were significantly linked to eating disturbance. Relationships were generally more consistent for women that for men. Implications are discussed in the context of extant and future research on body image with clinical and nonclinical populations.     

Body image or body images?: Comparative, multidimensional assessment among college students

A major criticism of research on body image concerns the dubious assumptions of the unidimensionality of the construct and the equivalence of body-image measures. Our study of 125 male and female college students compared multiple measurement methods within each of two modalities of body image: (a) perceptual (body-size estimation) and (b) attitudinal (body-image affect and cognition). Clinically relevant indices of psychological adjustment and eating disturbance were included. Results clearly supported the distinction between attitudinal and perceptual modalities of body image and indicated more convergent and discriminant validity for the former than for the latter. Whereas one method of assessing size-estimation accuracy and most body-image attitudes produced relationships with maladjustment, only attitudinal body image and perceptual, self-ideal discrepancy measures were significantly linked to eating disturbance. Relationships were generally more consistent for women than for men. Implications are discussed in the context of extant and future research on body image with clinical and nonclinical populations.