Sex as a source of power? Backlash against self-sexualizing women

Infanger, Martina; Rudman, Laurie A.; Sczesny, Sabine (2014). Sex as a source of power? Backlash against self-sexualizing women. Group processes and intergroup relations, 19(1), pp. 110-124. Sage 10.1177/1368430214558312

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Although women are thought to possess sexual power, they risk social and economic penalties (i.e., backlash; Rudman, 1998) when they self-sexualize (i.e., assert their power; Cahoon & Edmonds, 1989; Glick, Larsen, Johnson, & Branstiter, 2005). Why? Drawing on the status incongruity hypothesis (SIH), which predicts backlash against powerful women because they challenge the gender hierarchy, we expected prejudice against self-sexualizing women to be explained by a dominance penalty rather than a communality deficit (Rudman, Moss-Racusin, Phelan, & Nauts, 2012). Two experiments supported this hypothesis, and Experiment 3 further showed that the dominance penalty was explained by ascribing power motives to self-sexualized women. These findings extend the SIH’s utility to the domain of self-sexualization and illuminate the scope of people’s discomfort with female power. Implications for the advancement of gender equality are discussed.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Infanger, Martina, Sczesny, Sabine

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

1368-4302

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Irène Gonce-Gyr

Date Deposited:

27 Feb 2015 15:32

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:41

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/1368430214558312

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.63685

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/63685

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