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People often worry how others will perceive them if they socially reject others, but do women have more to fear than men? Although previous research has shown that women are perceived negatively for behaving in counter-stereotypical ways, research on backlash has focused on business settings. The present research applies backlash theory to examine how women are perceived for engaging in social rejection. The findings suggest that backlash may operate differently in social rejection because only men punish women for rejecting. Across four studies, the present research found that (1) women felt they were more likely to be penalized for engaging in social rejection than men, (2) women were less willing to endorse social rejection than men, and (3) men, but not women, viewed female rejectors in a more negative manner than male rejectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the sake of gender equality, it is vital to determine why husbands who relieve their wives' domestic burden are stigmatized as "unmanly" (Brescoll and Uhlmann in Psychol Women Q 29(4):436-445, 2005; Rudman and Mescher in J Soc Issues 69(2):322-340, 2013). We used biographical vignettes to examine whether masculinity penalties stem from not earning income (a male prescription) or performing domestic labor ("acting like women"). In Experiment 1, we held husbands' domestic labor constant but manipulated how much income they earned from home; in Experiment 2, we held husbands' earnings constant but varied their domestic labor. In Experiment 1, only low-income husbands were stigmatized (e.g., viewed as weaker than comparable wives); successful husbands working from home were spared penalties. In Experiment 2, husbands who performed 50 or 30% of the domestic labor were viewed similarly and more favorably than husbands who did 70%. Thus, across two experiments, men can relieve women's domestic burden without penalty provided they also earn some income and do not shoulder domestic inequality themselves. These findings are optimistic for domestic and gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal democracy is experiencing a crisis of confidence, and recent public-opinion research from a variety of sources has added to these anxieties. Using data from Pew Research Center cross-national surveys, this article finds that while democracy is broadly popular, there is nonetheless a surprisingly high degree of openness to nondemocratic modes of governing in many nations. And even though people tend to believe it is important to live in a country where democratic rights are respected, support for these rights is often tepid. In short, liberal democracy is popular among average citizens, but their commitment to this system of government is frequently underwhelming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of sexual economics theory argue that women exchange sex for men’s resources. This idea is likely to promote a competitive view of gender relationships that undermines gender equality by characterizing women as manipulative and financially dependent on men. Heterosexual college students (N = 474) who were randomly exposed to a popular YouTube video describing sexual economics theory increased their (1) behavioral support for sexual exchange concepts, (2) endorsement of the theory, and (3) adversarial views of heterosexual relationships, compared with a control group of students. Sexual exchange theory endorsement and adversarial heterosexual beliefs positively covaried, and both attitudes were related to participants’ sexism. Reading a critique of sexual exchange theory, that emphasized mutual respect and affection as precursors to heterosexual intimacy, counteracted the consequences of exposure to the theory. The findings provide evidence that disseminating sexual exchange theory via video on the Internet negatively affects young adults’ views of gender relationships. Educators, and others who wish to explore sexual economics theory through the use of this video, should also include a discussion of the countervailing evidence available. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first examination of the accuracy of metaperceptions of sexism among White, Asian, and Black women and men (N = 308), results showed that regardless of ethnicity, both genders were similarly inaccurate, but in opposing ways. Women overestimated men’s hostile sexism (HS) and underestimated men’s benevolent sexism (BS), whereas men overestimated women’s BS and underestimated women’s HS. Further, metaperceptions of HS were negatively related to metaperceptions of BS, for both genders. Individual differences in sexism informed metaperceptions only for men (not women). In concert, the findings support an illusion of antagonism between HS and BS. Viewing HS and BS as oppositional is an illusion because, cross-culturally, they are positively correlated in men and women alike (e.g., Glick et al., 2000), and both forms of sexism reinforce the gender hierarchy (Rudman & Glick, 2008). Therefore, disarming the illusion of antagonism is an overlooked key to advancing gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present research uniquely compared male control theory (MCT) versus female control theory (FCT) to illuminate motives for the sexual double standard (SDS), whereby men gain status from engaging in casual sex or having many sexual partners, but women are stigmatized for it. Consistent with MCT, men were more likely than women to endorse the SDS and to give sexual advice in ways that reinforce it-gender differences that were mediated by hostile sexism (HS) and endorsing the SDS, respectively.The data did not support FCT's argument that women are motivated by sexual economics to restrict female sexuality (Baumeister & Twenge, 2002). Both genders discouraged women from having casual sex to protect women from social stigma and rape myths that justify violence against sexual women. In concert, the findings support MCT more than FCT and suggest that sexism, stigma, and rape myths are primary obstacles to sexual equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firestone & Scholl (F&S) rely on three problematic assumptions about the mind (modularity, reflexiveness, and context-insensitivity) to argue cognition does not fundamentally influence perception. We highlight evidence indicating that perception, cognition, and emotion are constructed through overlapping, distributed brain networks characterized by top-down activity and context-sensitivity. This evidence undermines F&S's ability to generalize from case studies to the nature of perception.