This article investigates cross-national patterns in the gender division of housework in coresident couples. By using Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) data, we assess four key hypotheses proposed in the literature: namely, the relative resources approach (the partner who earns less does more housework), the time availability perspective (the partner who spends less time doing paid work does more housework), the economic dependency model (the partner who contributes proportionally less to the household income does more housework), and the gender ideology perspective (the beliefs on gender roles influence housework sharing in a couple), thereby verifying the presence of gender display. Our results reaffirm the significance of gender ideology, though with important differences across countries. Time availability and relative resources matter in the most egalitarian countries, whereas economic dependency matters in countries where partners contribute more unevenly to the household income.
BACKGROUNDIt is increasingly acknowledged that not only gender equality but also gender ideology plays a role in explaining fertility in advanced societies. In a micro perspective, the potential mismatch between gender equality (i.e., the actual sharing taking place in a couple) and gender ideology (i.e., attitudes and beliefs regarding gender roles) may drive childbearing decisions.
OBJECTIVEThis paper assesses the impact of consistency between gender equality in attitudes and equality in the division of household labour on the likelihood of having another child, for different parities.
METHODSRelying on two-wave panel data of the Bulgarian, Czech, French, Hungarian, and Lithuanian Generations and Gender Surveys, we build a couple typology defined by gender attitudes and housework-sharing. The typology identifies four types of couple: 1) gender-unequal attitudes and gender-unequal housework-sharing; 2) gender-equal attitudes and gender-unequal housework-sharing; 3) gender-unequal attitudes and gender-equal housework-sharing; 4) gender-equal attitudes and gender-equal
RESULTSThe impact of the typology varies with parity and gender: taking as reference category the case of gender-equal attitudes and gender-equal division of housework, the effect of all the other couple types on a new childbirth is strong and negative for the second child and female respondents.
CONCLUSIONSThe consistency between gender ideology and actual partners' housework-sharing is only favourable for childbearing as long as there is gender equality in both the dimensions.
The evidence for differential effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on prejudice is mixed. We propose that the closeness of the relationships respondents have with contact partners can explain inconsistencies in previous findings. In three studies (total N = 953), we tested the associations between positive intimate, negative intimate, positive superficial, and negative superficial contact and attitudes toward different outgroups (immigrants and gay people). We hypothesized that: (H1) the effect of positive contact would be maximized in intimate interactions; (H2) the effect of negative contact would be maximized in superficial interactions; (H3) positive intimate and negative superficial contact would have similar power in predicting attitudes. Results always supported H1, and supported H2 and H3 only with immigrants. Findings held also when controlling for category salience and agreeableness, but not for social dominance orientation, which instead strengthened the effect of negative superficial contact. Overall, findings clarify the positive-negative contact asymmetry.Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section.How to cite this article: Fuochi G, Voci A, Boin J, Hewstone M.Close to me: The importance of closeness versus superficiality in explaining the positive-negative contact asymmetry. Eur J Soc Psychol. 2020;50:766-782. https ://doi.
We examined the association of the combination of direct intergroup contact and mass media news with attitudes toward immigrants and gay people in Italy, hypothesizing that direct intergroup contact would buffer the negative association between media news and attitudes, but only when contact was intimate or positive. Measuring contact variables and attitudes toward immigrants (Study 1, N = 428; Study 2, N = 426) and gay men and women (Study 3, N = 220), we found that intimate and positive direct intergroup contact was associated with more positive attitudes toward outgroup members, whereas exposure to negative news was related to more negative attitudes. Moreover, our results supported the buffering hypothesis, as the negative association between negative news and intergroup attitudes was significantly weaker amongst respondents with higher levels of intimate and positive intergroup contact.
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