| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was to investigate interpersonal sexist discrimination, operationally defined as distancing behavior. A heterogeneous sample of participants were approached at four train stations and completed two paper and pencil simulated seating measures, a sex role attitudes measure, and provided demographic information. It was predicted that in the neutral situations presented in the seating measures where there is a choice to sit either next to a man or a woman, men would more often choose to sit next to a man but women were not expected to make seating choices based on the gender of the person seated. Men's seating choices were found to be influenced by the gender of target persons whereas women's choices were not, but men either distanced from or approached women target persons. Self-reported sex role attitudes were found not to be related to distancing behavior.We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Alyson Andrews, Nicholas Geraci, Scott Marino, Stacy Schiff, Robert Victoria, and Lisa Zamara, seniors at the University of Rhode Island, who served as investigators in this study and also assisted in the coding of data. Portions of this paper were presented at the national conference of the Association for Women in Psychology in Oakland, CA, on March 6, 1994.Requests for reprints may be sent to any of the authors at the University of Rhode Island, Department of Psychology, Kingston, RI 02881. |
