The power of affirming group values: Group affirmation buffers the self-esteem of women exposed to blatant sexism |
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| Authors: | Julie Spencer-Rodgers Brenda Major Daniel E. Forster Kaiping Peng |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology and Child Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA;2. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA;3. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Cables, FL, USA;4. School of Economics and Management &5. Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | Extending the group affirmation literature to the domain of prejudice, this study investigated whether group affirmation buffers the self-esteem of women exposed to blatant sexism. In accordance with Self-Affirmation Theory and group affirmation research, we hypothesized that when one aspect of the collective self is threatened (gender identity), self-esteem can be maintained via the affirmation of an alternative aspect of the collective self. In a 2 × 2 between-participants design, female students were randomly assigned to read about discrimination directed toward women or a non-self-relevant disadvantaged group (the Inuit). All then participated in a (fictitious) second study, in which half completed a group affirmation manipulation (wrote about the top three values of a self-defining group) and half completed a control writing exercise. The self-esteem of women who were threatened by sexism, but group affirmed, was protected from the negative effects of perceiving sexism. |
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| Keywords: | Sexism group affirmation self-esteem gender identity |
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