Perceptions of low agency and high sexual openness mediate the relationship between sexualization and sexual aggression

Abstract

Researchers have become increasingly interested in the saturation of popular Western culture by female hypersexualization. We provide data showing that men have more sexually aggressive intentions toward women who self-sexualize, and that self-sexualized women are vulnerable to sexual aggression if two qualifying conditions are met. Specifically, if perceivers view self-sexualized women as sexually open and lacking agency (i.e., the ability to influence one's environment), they harbor more sexually aggressive intentions and view women as easier to sexually victimize. In Experiment 1, male participants viewed a photograph of a woman whose self-sexualization was manipulated through revealing versus non-revealing clothing. In subsequent experiments, men and women (Experiment 2) and men only (Experiment 3) viewed a photograph of a woman dressed in non-revealing clothing but depicted as open or closed to sexual activity. Participants rated their perceptions of the woman's agency, then judged how vulnerable she was to sexual aggression (Experiments 1 and 2) or completed a sexually aggressive intentions measure (Experiment 3). Results indicated that both men and women perceived self-sexualized women as more vulnerable to sexual aggression because they assumed those women were highly sexually open and lacked agency. Perceptions of low agency also mediated the relationship between women's perceived sexual openness and men's intentions to sexually aggress. These effects persisted even when we described the self-sexualized woman as possessing highly agentic personality traits and controlled for individual differences related to sexual offending. The current work suggests that perceived agency and sexual openness may inform perpetrator decision-making and that cultural hypersexualization may facilitate sexual aggression. Aggr. Behav. 42:483-497, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In the context of romantic attraction, beautification can increase assertiveness in women

“…Although the current work provides evidence for a conditional effects of beautification on female assertiveness, our findings appear to be inconsistent with work showing that men and women perceive that women in attractive, revealing clothing lack agency [33,48,49]. Why is it that people perceive that women in such clothing lack agency, whereas the women themselves may potentially feel and behave in a more assertive manner?…”

“…We did not specify the sex of the person judging the job interview tapes, and all experimenters were female. Coders rated the audio clips without video so we could remove the potential confound of clothing on coders' judgements of women's assertiveness [33], but retain the effect of the manipulation on assertive behavior during the interview.…”

“…Women often become targets of backlash when they act assertively, especially in domains that are stereotype-inconsistent [43], and attractive women may be especially likely to be targeted. Women who engage in beautification and appearance-enhancing phenomena can also become targets of aggression by others, men and women like [33,[44][45][46][47]. Thus, although increases in beautification may engender benefits to women, in certain contexts it may also engender costs.…”

Effects of sexualized video games on online sexual harassment

“…One cause of dehumanization is a lack of perceived agency (Lebowitz & Ahn, 2016;Li, Leidner, & Castano, 2014;Morera, Quiles, Correa, Delgado, & Leyens, 2016;Tipler & Ruscher, 2014). Furthermore, perceived agency and humanness of women are known to mediate the relationship between exposure to sexual media and sexually aggressive attitudes (Blake, Bastian, & Denson, 2016;Rudman & Mescher, 2012). Consistent with Expectation State Theory (Berger et al, 1972) and the Social Cognitive Theory of Gender Development and Differentiation (Bussey & Bandura, 1999), the activation of stereotyped roles of women can explain the higher levels of sexual harassment of women.…”

“…In addition, sexualization might have primed perceived humanness and agency. Furthermore, perceived agency and humanness of women are known to mediate the relationship between exposure to sexual media and sexually aggressive attitudes (Blake, Bastian, & Denson, 2016;Rudman & Mescher, 2012). One cause of dehumanization is a lack of perceived agency (Lebowitz & Ahn, 2016;Li, Leidner, & Castano, 2014;Morera, Quiles, Correa, Delgado, & Leyens, 2016;Tipler & Ruscher, 2014).…”