She Loves Him, She Loves Him Not

Abstract

In two studies, we examined how romantic attachment style relates to women's sexism toward men. Specifically, we applied structural equation modeling and mediation analyses to the responses of over 500 self-reported heterosexual women. Study 1 included 229 women who answered questionnaires tapping attachment anxiety and avoidance, ambivalent sexism toward men, romanticism, and interpersonal trust. We conducted Study 2 as a replication, changing questionnaire order to gauge the robustness of results, using a new sample of 273 women. In general, women's attachment anxiety predicted ambivalent sexism (both benevolence and hostility) toward men, whereas women's attachment avoidance predicted univalent hostility (and lower benevolence) toward men. Romanticism mediated attachment style's relationship to benevolence toward men, whereas lower interpersonal trust mediated attachment's relationship to hostility toward men. The results suggest that, for women (as for men), sexist attitudes toward members of the other sex have roots in attachment style and associated worldviews. Better understanding of women's ambivalence toward men in romantic relationships may help to inform marital therapy.

An interdependence account of sexism and power: Men’s hostile sexism, biased perceptions of low power, and relationship aggression.

“…Agnew (1998; "I feel satisfied with our relationship"; 1 ϭ strongly disagree, 7 ϭ strongly agree). To capture distrusting expectations of others and negative relationship histories that may be associated with sexist attitudes (Hart, Glick, & Dinero, 2013;Hart, Hung, Glick, & Dinero, 2012), we also assessed attachment insecurity with the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; Simpson, Rholes, & Phillips, 1996). Eight items assessed attachment-related avoidance (e.g., "I'm not very comfortable having to depend on romantic partners") and nine items assessed attachment anxiety (e.g., "I often worry that my romantic partners don't really love me"; 1 ϭ strongly disagree and 7 ϭ strongly agree).…”

Relationship (in)security is central to the sources and outcomes of sexist attitudes

“…However, hostile sexism contains exaggerated characterizations of women intentionally manipulating men and taking advantage of men's dependence on female partners (Glick & Fiske, 1996;Yakushko, 2005). Indeed, there is growing evidence that men's hostile sexism overlaps with relationship-based insecurities (Fisher & Hammond, 2019;Hart, Glick, & Dinero, 2013). Fisher and Hammond (2019) have provided the strongest evidence by conducting a meta-analysis that integrated sexism with one of the most studied indicators of relationship insecurity.…”

“…The "chivalrous" role pursued by men who endorse benevolent sexism is part of an idyllic and traditional interpretation of romantic relationships. Men's endorsement of benevolent sexism is associated with highly romanticized beliefs, for example, that people are destined to meet their soul mates (Hammond & Overall, 2013) and that "true love" in relationships will overcome any challenges (Hart et al, 2013). These romanticized theories about relationships likely mean that men overlook any uncomfortable realities in their relationships.…”

“…Our relationship (in)security perspective highlights that rather than simply having experience with romantic relationships, sexist attitudes will be shaped by the degree to which their relationships elicited insecurity versus fostered security and trust. Indeed, in adults, histories of responsive versus unresponsive romantic partners (i.e., level of attachment security) predict rejection versus endorsement of sexism (Fisher & Hammond, 2019; also see Hart et al, 2013;Hammond et al, 2016). Thus, future investigations incorporating more detailed assessments of the quality and relative security of relationships may more reliably identify changes in both adolescents' and adults' adoption of sexist attitudes.…”

Attachment and prejudice

“…Attachment patterns also predict prejudiced attitudes regarding gender. Hart and colleagues [29,30] examined how models of romantic others that underlie attachment patterns predicted benevolent and hostile sexism among male and female samples. Attachment anxiety was associated with more benevolent and hostile sexist attitudes (i.e., ambivalent sexism), whereas avoidance was associated with only more hostile sexist attitudes toward the opposite sex.…”