The Palliative Function of Sexism: Individual Sexism Buffers the Relationship Between Exposure to Workplace Sexism and Psychological Distress

Spaccatini, Federica; Roccato, Michele

doi:10.1007/s12119-020-09793-7

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Consistent with the portrayal of sexism as a stressor, it can elicit anxiety in men 29 . For women, experiences with both benevolent and hostile sexism are associated with increased self-reported anxiety 90 , 91 and anger 28 , 92 . However, these associations are relatively stronger for hostile than benevolent sexism 28 , 91 , perhaps because women do not always identify benevolent sexism as overtly (or uniquely) negative.…”

Section: Effects Of Ambivalent Sexismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For women, experiences with both benevolent and hostile sexism are associated with increased self-reported anxiety 90 , 91 and anger 28 , 92 . However, these associations are relatively stronger for hostile than benevolent sexism 28 , 91 , perhaps because women do not always identify benevolent sexism as overtly (or uniquely) negative. Men and women tend to overestimate and underestimate how women’s affect will be influenced by exposure to hostile and benevolent sexism, respectively, potentially because they have only a naive understanding of the difference between them 29 .…”

Section: Effects Of Ambivalent Sexismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Benevolent and hostile sexism in a shifting global context

Barreto

Doyle

2022

Nat Rev Psychol

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The theory of and research on ambivalent sexism — which encompasses both attitudes that are overtly negative (hostile sexism) and those that seem subjectively positive but are actually harmful (benevolent sexism) — have made substantial contributions to understanding how sexism operates and the consequences it has for women. It is now clear that sexism takes different forms, some of which can be disguised as protection and flattery. However, all forms of sexism have negative effects on how women are perceived and treated by others as well as on women themselves. Some of these findings have implications for understanding other social inequalities, such as ableism, ageism, racism and classism. In this Review, we summarize what is known about the predictors of ambivalent sexism and its effects. Although we focus on women, we also consider some effects on men, in particular those that indirectly influence women. Throughout the Review we point to societal shifts that are likely to influence how sexism is manifested, experienced and understood. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of these changes and specifying areas of enquiry that need to be addressed to continue making progress in understanding the mechanisms that underlie social inequalities.

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Section: Effects Of Ambivalent Sexismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Ambivalent Sexismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benevolent and hostile sexism in a shifting global context

Barreto

Doyle

2022

Nat Rev Psychol

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“…First, we adopted a snowball sampling strategy by spreading the link to the questionnaires online. Although this recruiting technique allowed us to reach sufficient sample sizes quickly and thus is a frequently used data collection strategy (e.g., Spaccatini et al, 2019;Spaccatini & Roccato, 2021), it presents some limitations. As suggested by Thornton and colleagues (2016), indeed, recruiting participants online through social networks often results in an unbalanced nonrepresentative sample and uncontrolled survey administration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Look So Beautiful… But Why Are You So Distressed?”: The Negative Effects of Appearance Compliments on the Psychological Well-being of Individuals in the Workplace

Pacilli

Spaccatini

Roccato

2022

Sexuality & Culture

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The primacy of beauty for women is frequently conveyed through language and, more particularly, through a particular class of conversational devices, compliments. Although previous research has been conducted on the impact of appearance compliments on individuals’ psychological state, research has yet to examine what happens when a compliment about the appearance clearly conveys a positive evaluation in a domain that is completely unrelated to the evaluation’s context, such as a selection interview for a job. Because the selection of a candidate should be based solely on their skills and competence, with no role for physical appearance, we purposely chose a job interview scenario to examine the psychological impact of inappropriate compliments. Through two 2-by-2 experimental studies (Ns respectively = 135 and 301), we examined whether and how anxiety and depression levels vary in women (Study 1 and Study 2) and men (Study 2) applicants who received compliments on their physical appearance, vs. their competence and had a neutral vs. positive feedback on the result of the interview. Findings of the two studies consistently showed that inappropriate compliments increase anxiety and depression levels in women but not in men, independently of the positive or neutral result of the selection interview. This research provides an important opportunity to advance the understanding of inappropriate appearance compliments on psychological well-being of the recipients in the workplace setting.

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“…Experiences of discrimination are consistently linked to negative emotional outcomes (Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009). For instance, women exposed to gender discrimination in the workplace reported experiencing greater levels of anxiety and depression compared with women in a control condition (Pacilli et al, 2019; Spaccatini & Roccato, 2020). Emotion-regulation strategies used when contending with discrimination can subsequently exacerbate or attenuate its adverse emotional outcomes.…”

Section: Emotion Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing emotions in the face of discrimination: The differential effects of self-immersion, self-distanced reappraisal, and positive reappraisal.

Duker

Green

Onyeador

et al. 2022

Emotion

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Contending with sexism is associated with negative affective outcomes, including increased anger, anxiety, and depression. Prior research demonstrates that the use of emotion regulation strategies, such as self-distanced reappraisal, when contending with general negative interpersonal experiences, can help people manage their emotions, attenuating the associated negative affect. The present research considers whether the affective benefits of reappraisal extend to past experiences of discrimination. Specifically, we examine whether using selfdistanced reappraisal (Studies 1 & 2) or positive reappraisal (Study 2) when contending with sexism yields more positive and less negative affective outcomes, relative to engaging in selfimmersion. Contrary to previous research examining more general negative interpersonal experiences, we find limited evidence that self-distanced reappraisal is an effective emotion regulation strategy for women contending with sexism (N = 1236). The present work offers preliminary evidence, however, that positive reappraisal may be a promising emotion regulation strategy that reduces the negative affective consequences associated with reliving past instances of sexism, compared with either self-immersion or self-distanced reappraisal. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the efficacy of different emotion regulation strategies in the context of discrimination.

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The Palliative Function of Sexism: Individual Sexism Buffers the Relationship Between Exposure to Workplace Sexism and Psychological Distress

Cited by 12 publications

References 49 publications

Benevolent and hostile sexism in a shifting global context

Benevolent and hostile sexism in a shifting global context

“You Look So Beautiful… But Why Are You So Distressed?”: The Negative Effects of Appearance Compliments on the Psychological Well-being of Individuals in the Workplace

Managing emotions in the face of discrimination: The differential effects of self-immersion, self-distanced reappraisal, and positive reappraisal.

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