What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes

Abstract

Sexist humor may be more difficult to confront than serious expressions of sexism because humor disguises the biased nature of the remark. The present research investigated whether delivering a sexist remark as a joke, compared to a serious statement, tempered perceptions that the speaker was sexist which, in turn, made women less likely to confront. Using a computer-mediated instant messaging paradigm, women were randomly assigned to receive the same sexist remark phrased either in a serious manner or as a joke. We recorded how women actually responded to the sexist remark and coded for confrontation. In Experiments 1 (195 women) and 2 (134 women) we found that humor decreased perceptions that the speaker was sexist. Furthermore, as perceptions that the perpetrator was sexist decreased, women's confronting also decreased. Experiment 2 demonstrated an additional consequence of reducing the perceived sexism of the perpetrator-it increased tolerance of sexist behavior perpetrated against an individual woman and sexual harassment more generally. Interestingly, the indirect effects only appeared when women at least moderately endorsed hostile sexism. For hostile sexists, failure to identify sexism reduced confrontation and increased tolerance for sexual harassment and sexist behavior. Contrary to popular belief, humor can actually make sexist messages more dangerous and difficult to confront than serious remarks.A woman bank teller accidentally short-circuited a computer system that monitored the bank's transactions. After this incident, many employees told jokes about women's alleged inferiority with technology. At a subsequent meeting, a woman secretary accidentally unplugged a slide projector with her foot as she walked by. A man supervisor joked to his colleagues about a Bwoman's touch,^which elicited laughter from other supervisors (Kahn 1989). Incidents like theseplayful, demeaning, group-based comments cloaked in humor-are among the most common ways that women experience sexism in the workplace and other settings (Pryor 1995).Sexist humor has been defined as humor that denigrates, demeans, stereotypes, oppresses, or objectifies women (Bemiller and Schneider 2010;Greenwood and Isbell 2002;LaFrance and Woodzicka 1998). How should women respond to such playful, often funny, but nonetheless belittling instances of sexist humor? In the present research we contend that sexist humor presents a unique challenge for people who may wish to engage in confrontation because the meaning of humorous sexist remarks, and the intentions of their owners, are often unclear. Accordingly, we investigated the degree to which delivering a sexist remark as a joke, compared to a serious statement, affected women's perception that the perpetrator was sexist, the likelihood that they would confront the sexist remark, and their tolerance of a subsequently encountered incident of sexist behavior, as well as their tolerance of sexual harassment, a more general, normative pattern of gender discrimination against women (Equal Employment

Cracking wise to break the ice: The potential for racial humor to ease interracial anxiety

“…Broadly, their results demonstrated that the use of sexist humor led to decreased perceptions of the male humorist as a sexist, as well as a decreased likelihood of confronting that individual for those views. Additionally, the presence of hostile sexist beliefs among the female participants in this investigation exacerbated these effects (Mallett et al 2016; Experiment 2). Research by Woodzicka et al (2015) helps to contextualize these effects.…”

“…Recent work on the effects of humor on bias confrontation has attempted to fill some of these gaps. For example, Mallett et al (2016) investigated how the use of sexist humor, compared to nonhumorous sexist statements, affected women's likelihood to label a male interaction partner as sexist. Broadly, their results demonstrated that the use of sexist humor led to decreased perceptions of the male humorist as a sexist, as well as a decreased likelihood of confronting that individual for those views.…”

Responding to Sexual Objectification: The Role of Emotions in Influencing Willingness to Undertake Different Types of Action

“…Finally, they may take a benign response, believing that the perpetrator meant well by the action. For example, the action could be viewed as a joke (Mallett et al 2016 ). Alternatively, women may view sexual objectification as a compliment (Sáez et al 2016 ).…”

Does Humour Influence Perceptions of the Ethicality of Female-Disparaging Advertising?

“…On these grounds, it could be argued that humour, with its distracting and resistance-alleviating abilities (e.g. Mallett et al 2016), can assuage the provocative appeals of female-disparaging ads and make them more ethically acceptable. Thus, based on the aforementioned: H3.…”