Perpetuating online sexism offline: Anonymity,interactivity, and the effects of sexist hashtags on social media

Sexism and sexual harassment are not uncommon in online environments such as social networking sites, forums, and video games. This experiment investigated whether users’ anonymity and level of interactivity with sexist content on social media influenced sexist attitudes and offline behavior. Participants (N = 172) used a Twitter account that was anonymous or had personally identifying details. They were asked to share (i.e., retweet) or write posts incorporating a sexist hashtag. After exposure, participants completed two purportedly unrelated tasks, a survey and a job hiring simulation in which they evaluated male and female candidates’ resumés. Anonymous participants reported greater hostile sexism after tweeting than nonanonymous participants. Participants who composed sexist tweets reported greater hostile sexism and ranked female job candidates as less competent than those who retweeted, although this did not significantly affect their likelihood to hire.     

Inferences About Avatars: Sexism,Appropriateness, Anthropomorphism,and the Objectification of Female Virtual Representations

This study integrated the computers as social actors (CASA) framework with objectification theory to predict that traits, such as sexism, influence perceptions of virtual representations as well as attributions of the source and message. Participants (N = 397) received a message about dating or job interviews presented by a virtual woman in either context‐appropriate or context‐inappropriate dress. Causal modeling techniques revealed that participants higher on sexism rated the representations as less human (i.e., less anthropomorphic) and less credible. Further, perceived appropriateness of clothing and anthropomorphism influenced perceptions of source trust and message clarity. Implications for understanding the role of trait variables such as sexism on perceptions of virtual representations are discussed.     

Bad but Bold: Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Men Predict Gender Inequality in 16 Nations.

A 16-nation study involving 8,360 participants revealed that hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men, assessed by the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1999), were (a) reliably measured across cultures, (b) positively correlated (for men and women, within samples and across nations) with each other and with hostile and benevolent sexism toward women (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1996), and (c) negatively correlated with gender equality in cross-national comparisons. Stereotype measures indicated that men were viewed as having less positively valenced but more powerful traits than women. The authors argue that hostile as well as benevolent attitudes toward men reflect and support gender inequality by characterizing men as being designed for dominance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)