The object of my aggression: Sexual objectification increases physical aggression toward women

Abstract

Objectification involves reducing someone to a sexual object, rather than seeing them as a full person. Despite numerous theoretical claims that people are more aggressive toward the objectified, and empirical evidence that objectification is linked to high willingness to aggress, rape proclivity, and aggressive attitudes, no research has examined a causal link between objectification and physical aggression, particularly in the context of provocation. In two experiments, we examined this predicted link. In Experiment 1, using a 2 (objectification: no/yes) × 2 (provocation: no/yes) factorial between-subjects design, we investigated the effects of objectification, induced via body focus during a face-to-face interaction, and provocation on physical aggression toward a female confederate. Our results revealed a significant main effect of provocation, a marginal main effect of objectification, and a significant interaction between these variables. In the absence of a provocation, focusing on a woman's body increased aggression toward her. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using a video of a target woman instead of a face-to-face interaction. Again, our results showed a significant two-way interaction between objectification and provocation, wherein objectification increased aggression in the absence of provocation. Overall, this research indicates that objectification can lead to heightened physical aggression toward objectified women.

Insights into Men’s Sexual Aggression Toward Women: Dehumanization and Objectification

“…As we noted, the dehumanization of others has been empirically linked to heightened aggression in general (Bastian et al 2012;Greitmeyer and McLatchie 2011;Leidner et al 2013). Recent work has shown that there also exists a link between objectification and increased general physical aggression against women (Vasquez et al 2017), mirroring the link between dehumanization and aggression. People are also less likely to help an objectified woman who is the victim of intimate partner violence (Pacilli et al 2017), which although not sexual in nature, is similarly often committed by men against women (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).…”

“…The present work seeks to fill this gap. Knowing that objectification has been linked to general physical aggression (Vasquez et al 2017) and attitudes about women who are victims of intimate partner violence (Pacilli et al 2017), it follows that such a robust investigation of its role in sexual aggression is appropriate and timely.…”

The Social Interaction Model of Objectification: A process model of goal‐based objectifying exchanges between men and women

“…Actual interaction (AI) studies, as the name suggests, reflect an in-person encounter between the objectifier and objectified, though the degree of spontaneous objectifying behavior produced in these interactions varies. In the purest AI studies, researchers invite male and female participants to the laboratory and examine real-time objectification during mixed-sex exchanges (Garcia et al, 2016;Strelan & Pagoudis, 2018;Vasquez et al, 2018). In these studies, participants are naïve and the complexity and dynamic nature of objectification as it unfolds in real time between two people can be understood.…”

“…We believe it would be quite difficult, if not impossible to assess actual objectifying touch in the laboratory. However, Vasquez et al (2018) utilized a clever methodology in which they found that men were more likely to subject a female confederate to an unwanted physical encounter (putting her hand in very cold water) as a proxy for physical aggression. Similar approaches could be used with sexual aggression.…”

Mapping evidence of young people’s experiences of sexual aggression in the United Kingdom: A systematic scoping review protocol

“…Acts of sexual aggression can have physical, emotional and mental consequences which predisposes young people to subsequent short-and long-term mental and social disorders and comorbidities [12]. Such consequences include feelings of guilt, shame, anger, experiencing post-traumatic stress disorders, antisocial behaviour, alcohol and drug misuse and dependency, confusion surrounding sexuality and sexually transmitted illnesses including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [13][14][15][16][17][18]. A reduction or the elimination of these acts could ameliorate the well-being and quality of life of young people including school, college and university students.…”