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Media that sexually objectify women by portraying them in ways that emphasize physical beauty and sexual readiness as well as reduce them to decorative and sexual objects have been traditionally identified by scholars as a powerful cultural risk factor encouraging sexual harassment and sexual violence. In the present article we review the existing empirical evidence linking sexually objectifying media and sexual harassment of women to the overarching and integrative Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework. This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the effects of sexually objectifying media on three target groups directly involved in sexual harassment—perpetrators, victims, and bystanders—and it postulates three cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which sexually objectifying media lead to sexual harassment: dehumanization, disruption of emphatic resonance, and a shift in gender norms. The evidence reviewed on the basis of the Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework shows that sexually objectifying media converge in normalizing harassing behaviors and can be a causal risk factor for increasing engagement in sexual harassment, heightening victims’ acceptance of sexual harassment and discouraging bystander intervention. We discuss implications of these arguments for effectively preventing negative effects of exposure to sexually objectifying media and for education programs aimed at critical media-consumption.

Presence of gay men in mainstream media may have a positive impact on viewers’ attitude change. However, gay male characters are often stereotypically portrayed as feminine, and no research has yet explored audiences’ reactions to counter-stereotypical gay characters. Heterosexual Italian men ( N = 158) were exposed to a clip portraying (i) a stereotypical feminine gay male character, (ii) a counter-stereotypical masculine gay male character, or (iii) a nature documentary. Compared to the other conditions, exposure to the counter-stereotypical gay character increased discrimination toward gay men, in the form of anti-gay jokes, the higher the level of participants’ prejudice against gay men. Results further demonstrated that this effect was explained by reduced perceived stereotypicality of the character. Findings are in line with the social identity theory prediction that when gay men (outgroup) are perceived as too similar, and potentially threaten the group identity, heterosexual men would attempt to restore ingroup distinctiveness.

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings., National Science Centre, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1 MCIN/AEI PID2019-111549GB-I00, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

Research suggests that exposure to social networking sites portraying a thin and often sexualized beauty ideal reduces young women’s body satisfaction, while exposure to body-positive content improves it. However, it is unclear whether sexualization could impair the beneficial effects of body-positivity messages. Young Italian women were exposed to one of three experimental conditions showing sexualized beauty ideals, sexualized body positivity, or non-sexualized body positivity that appeared either on Instagram (Study 1, N = 356) or TikTok (Study 2, N = 316). Across the two studies, results showed that, regardless of sexualization, exposure to body positivity increased body satisfaction and positive mood compared with pre-exposure measures, while exposure to sexualized beauty ideals reduced it. Participants in the sexualized beauty ideal condition also engaged in upward appearance social comparison whereas body positivity elicited downward comparison. Problematic social networking sites’ use moderated the effects of condition on body satisfaction, appearance social comparison, and positive mood, while downward comparison mediated the relation between condition and body satisfaction and positive mood. Our results highlight both beneficial and critical aspects of body positivity that should be taken into consideration when designing body image interventions and policymaking.

To test the “sex sells” assumption, we examined how Italian men and women react to sexualized advertising. Women showed lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward products presented with sexualized female models than with neutral ads, whereas men were unaffected by ads’ sexualization (Study 1,n = 251). Study 2 (n = 197) replicated the overall results. Study 3 (n = 198) tested hostile sexism as a moderator as well as negative emotions as a mediator of consumers’ responses. Especially men with higher hostile sexism showed more purchase intentions after viewing female sexualized ads than neutral ads. Moreover, women’s lower consumer responses toward sexualized female ads were due to higher negative emotions. Study 4 (n = 207) included ads with both female and male models, replicating responses to female sexualization and showing that both women and men had lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward male sexualized ads than neutral ads. Replicating and extending Study 3’s results, women’s negative emotions was the mediator. The present study has practical implications for marketers because it suggests that “sex does not sell.” In addition, considering both the psychological damage and practical inefficacy of sexualized ads, our findings have important implications for public policy.

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by a Grant from the National Science Centre in Poland (Grant Number: 2017/26/M/HS6/00360) awarded to Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka. Data collection by the following researchers was supported by Grants as follows: Emma C. O'Connor (Grant RL5GM118963 from National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health; Angel Gomez (Grant RTI2018-093550-B-I00 from the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain); Sylvie Graf and Martina Hrebickova (Grant 20-01214S from the Czech Science Foundation, and Grant RVO: 68081740 from the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences); Teri A. Kirby (Grant ES/S00274X/1 from the Economic and Social Research Council); Soledad de Lemus (Grant PSI2016-79971-P from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the excellence); Michelle K. Ryan and Renata Bongiorno (Grant ERC-2016-COG 725128 from the European Research Council awarded to Michelle K. Ryan); Marie Gustafsson Senden, Anna Lindqvist and Emma Renstrom (Grant 2017-00414 from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare); Claudio V. Torres (Grant DPI/DIRPE n. 04/2019 from the University of Brasilia)., This study was preregistered in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/u9xfg/., Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Whereas qualitative and ethnographic data suggest that many cultures conceptualize manhood as precarious, quantitative research has yet to demonstrate the cross-cultural consistency of precarious manhood beliefs. Here, we examined the psychometric isomorphism, or measurement invariance, of a brief precarious manhood beliefs scale (the PMB). Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N=33,417), we examined: (1) the isomorphism of the PMB across individual and country levels; (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies (e.g., ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; Glick & Fiske, 1996, 1999); and (3) associations of the PMB with country-level indices of gender equality (the GGGI; World Economic Forum, 2019) and human development (the HDI; United Nations Development Programme, 2019). Findings indicate that the PMB is a psychometrically valid and isomorphic index of beliefs about the male gender role that accounts for unique variance in country-level gender equality and human development., National Science Center, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness PSI2016-79971-P, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

Instagram is a visually centered social media that involves the presence of sexualized imagery posted by users. Such Instagram sexualization may have a negative impact on women's body image. The present study examined whether exposure to Instagram sexualization, namely posts of sexualized women along with appearance-related comments, affected women's body satisfaction and cosmetic surgery intentions. In doing so, it also considered the moderating role of Instagram Addiction Proclivity (IAP). Young Italian female participants (N = 247) were randomly exposed to one of four video conditions resulting from the combination of either sexualized or non-sexualized women's pictures on Instagram, paired with appearance or neutral comments. In the sexualized picture condition participants’ body dissatisfaction increased compared to pre-exposure levels and to the non-sexualized picture condition. The type of comments did not affect participants’ body satisfaction. Moreover, IAP predicted cosmetic surgery intentions and moderated their reactions to Instagram content. Indeed, the higher the IAP, the higher the cosmetic surgery intentions of participants viewing sexualized pictures with neutral comments and non-sexualized pictures with body appearance comments. These findings suggest that female Instagram users should be aware of the negative impacts of viewing sexualized imagery as well as the role that IAP may play. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

We investigated the novel hypothesis that a sensitizing web campaign against media sexual objectification would lead to lower male gender-harassing conduct (i.e., number of sexist jokes sent to a chat partner), lower sexual coercion intention (via the Likelihood to Sexually Harass scale), and lower hostile sexism (via the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Across two experiments (Ns = 157; 159), male participants were exposed to one of three videos: (a) a web campaign against female objectification (sensitizing), (b) a nature documentary (control), or (c) a video in which women are portrayed as sexual objects (sexually objectifying). Study 1 and Study 2 together demonstrated that men exposed to the sensitizing video showed lower gender-harassing behavior, lower hostile sexism, and lower sexual coercion intention than participants in the other two conditions altogether. Moreover, the sexually objectifying vs. control video condition led to higher gender-harassing behavior. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the sensitizing video led to lower hostile sexism, which in turn was associated with both lower gender-harassing behavior and lower sexual coercion intentions. The sensitizing video led to unexpectedly higher benevolent sexism; however, benevolent sexism was not associated with higher sexual harassment. We conclude by discussing the importance and practical implications of the results.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the causal direction of influence between the ingroup as a whole and the self or another ingroup member considering a key feature of groups, i.e., their perceived meaningfulness. To this goal, in Study 1, 2, and 3 we predicted a preference for self-stereotyping and ingroup-stereotyping in the meaningful social categories of sorority women, left-handed people and psychology students. In Study 4 we further expect that the meaningfulness attributed to a group moderates the direction of causality between individual and ingroup perception. Thus, we used one's Zodiac sign as the ingroup whose degree of meaningfulness varies across participants and we hypothesized higher levels of meaningfulness attributed to the ingroup to be associated with higher self- and ingroup-stereotyping. Using the methodologically stringent Induction Deduction Paradigm, participants were given information on unfamiliar dimensions, about either the ingroup or an individual (self or other ingroup member) and asked to make inferences on those same attributes about the ingroup (induction condition) or the individual (deduction condition). As predicted, a preference for deduction to the self (i.e., self-stereotyping) and deduction to another ingroup member (i.e., ingroup-stereotyping) were found for the meaningful groups of sorority women, left-handed people, and Psychology students (Studies 1, 2, and 3). In Study 4, consistent with predictions, the higher the level of attributed meaningfulness to the Zodiac system the higher the degree of deduction both to the self (self-stereotyping) and to another Zodiac ingroup member (ingroup-stereotyping). Several implications of these results are discussed, for example in relation to the possibility of educational interventions aimed at invalidating intergroup differences.

Men outscore women in mental rotation. Among the possible explanations for this result are gender stereotypes. Research has shown that instructions confirming or disconfirming the gender stereotype that men are more talented than women may affect performance in some spatial tasks, such as mental rotation, but research so far has shown inconsistent or null results. However, no research to date has assessed whether participants' implicit associations linking men to spatial abilities may modulate these effects. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the moderating role of the implicit gender spatial stereotyping, that is the automatic associations between men vs. women and space, in male and female participants receiving either stereotypical (stating that men outscore women) or stereotype-nullifying (stating that there is no gender difference) explicit instructions. Results confirmed that men performed better than women in mental rotation, but also showed that in the stereotype-nullifying condition, the higher the automatic associations between space and men the lower men's performance. The discussion focuses on the importance of considering implicit gender spatial stereotyping as a factor that can modulate mental rotation performance.

Group status influences individuals' identity. Low-status group members identify with their in-group more strongly than high-status group members. However, previous research has mostly analyzed explicit identification with a single in-group. We examined effects of both double group membership, namely gender and sexual orientation, which are two intersecting categories defining high/low-status groups, and contextual identity prime on both implicit self-categorization and explicit identification. Heterosexual and homosexual men and women (N = 296) completed measures of implicit self-categorization and explicit identification with gender and sexual orientation after being primed with gender or sexual orientation. Implicit self-categorization was stronger for low-status than high-status groups: implicit gender self-categorization was higher for women than men, and implicit sexual orientation self-categorization was stronger for homosexual than heterosexual participants. Lesbian participants showed the strongest implicit sexual orientation self-categorization compared to the other three groups. Moreover, homosexual men and women and heterosexual women showed stronger implicit self-categorization with their low- than high-status membership. By contrast, heterosexual men showed equally strong implicit self-categorization with gender and sexual orientation. No differences on explicit identification emerged. Hypotheses on contextual identity primes were only partially confirmed. Findings are discussed in relation to literature about sexual orientation self-categorization and gender stigma. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Although previous research has demonstrated that objectification impairs female cognitive performance, no research to date has investigated the mechanisms underlying such decrement. Therefore, we tested the role of flow experience as one mechanism leading to performance decrement under sexual objectification. Gaze gender was manipulated by having male versus female experimenters take body pictures of female participants (N = 107) who then performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task. As predicted, a moderated mediation model showed that under male versus female gaze, higher internalization of beauty ideals was associated with lower flow, which in turn decreased performance. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to objectification theory and strategies to prevent sexually objectifying experiences.