| Abstract: | This study, the second in a series of investigations of sexist discrimination in face-to-face situations, involved the observations of women and men characters on 10 primetime TV shows found to be most popular with a sample of eighth graders. Distancing behavior—the operational measure of face-to-face discrimination—was found, as predicted, to be manifested more frequently by men TV characters toward women than toward men. Distancing behavior by women TV characters, on the other hand, was not related to the gender of the person with whom they were interacting. Observations were made independently by 53 trained college students, most of whom watched four preassigned TV programs, focusing on either a woman or a man character during a 10–12 minute segment. It was also found that women TV characters appeared less often in the programs than men and that, when they did appear, they were more likely to be shown interacting with men than with other women. Implications for behavioral modeling are discussed. |
