Two studies using Peter Glick and Susan Fiske's Ambivalent Sexism Inventory examined sexist men's attitudes toward women. The authors hypothesized that ambivalent sexist (as compared with nonsexist) men would habitually classify women into polarized subgroups (those they put on a "pedestal" and those they place in the "gutter"). Study 1 revealed that ambivalent sexism predicted greater polarization in men's evaluations of spontaneously generated female subtypes. Study 2 demonstrated that the negative component of sexist ambivalence (hostile sexism) predicted less favorable evaluations of women in a nontraditional role (career women), whereas the subjectively positive component of sexist ambivalence (benevolent sexism) predicted favorable feelings toward women in a traditional role (homemakers). Implications for the nature of sexist ambivalence (and other forms of ambivalent prejudice) are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
2.
Altemeyer, B. (1988). Enemies of freedom: Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
3.
Arendt, H. (1963). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil. New York: Penguin Books.
4.
Ashmore, R. D. , Del Boca, F. K., & Titus, D. (1984, August). Types of women and men: Yours, mine, and ours. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto.
5.
Assor, A. , Aronoff, J., & Messe, L. (1981). Attribute relevance as a moderator of the effects of motivation on impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 789-796.
6.
Assor, A. , Aronoff, J., & Messe, L. (1986). An experimental test of defensive processes in impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 644-650.
7.
Bargh, J. A. , & Raymond, P. (1995). The naive misuse of power: Nonconscious sources of sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 85-96.
8.
Clifton, A. K. , McGrath, D., & Wick, B. (1976). Stereotypes of women: A single category?Sex Roles, 2, 135-148.
9.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 5-18.
10.
Devine, P. G. , Monteith, M. J., Zuwerink, J. R., & Elliot, A. J. (1991). Prejudice with and without compunction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 817-830.
11.
Eagly, A. H. , & Mladinic, A. (1989). Gender stereotypes and attitudes toward women and men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 543-558.
12.
Eagly, A. H. , & Mladinic, A. (1993). Are people prejudiced against women? Some answers from research on attitudes, gender stereotypes, and judgments of competence. In W. Strobe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (pp. 1-35). New York: John Wiley.
13.
Fiske, S. T. , & Neuberg, S. L. (1990). A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 1-74). New York: Academic Press.
14.
Fiske, S. T. , & Stevens, L. (1993). What's so special about sex? Gender stereotyping and discrimination. In S. Oskamp & M. Costanzo (Eds.), Gender issues in contemporary society: Applied social psychology annual (pp. 173-196). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
15.
Gaertner, S. L. , & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racismSan Diego: Academic Press.
16.
Glick, P. , & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.
17.
Haddock, G. , & Zanna, M. P. (1994). Preferring "housewives" to "feminists": Categorization and the favorability of attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 25-52.
18.
Haddock, G. , Zanna, M. P., & Esses, V. M. (1993). Assessing the structure of prejudicial attitudes: The case of attitudes toward homosexuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1105-1118.
19.
Harris, M. (1991). Cultural anthropology (3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
20.
Katz, I. (1981). Stigma: A social psychological analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
21.
Katz, I. , & Hass, R. G. (1988). Racial ambivalence and value conflict: Correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 893-905.
22.
Kinder, D. R. , & Sears, D. O. (1981). Symbolic racism and racial threats to "the good life."Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 414-431.
23.
Linville, P. W. , Salovey, P., & Fischer, G. W. (1986). Stereotyping and perceived distributions of social characteristics: An application to ingroup-outgroup perceptions. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 165-208). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
24.
MacDonald, T. K. , & Zanna, M. P. (1996). Cross-dimension ambivalence toward feminists: Can cross-dimension ambivalence affect hiring decisions? Unpublished manuscript, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
25.
Noseworthy, C. M. , & Lott, A. J. (1984). The cognitive organization of gender stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 474-481.
26.
Pratto, F. , Sidanius, J., & Stallworth, L. M. (1993). Sexual selection and the sexual and ethnic basis of social hierarchy. In L. Ellis (Ed.), Social stratification and economic inequality (Vol. 1, pp. 111-137). Westport, CT: Praeger.
27.
Rogers, R. W. , & Prentice-Dunn, S. (1981). Deindividuation and anger-mediated interracial aggression: Unmasking regressive racism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 63-73.
28.
Six, B. , & Eckes, T. (1991). A closer look at the complex structure of gender stereotypes. Sex Roles, 24, 57-71.
29.
Spence, J. T. , & Helmreich, R. (1972). The Attitudes Toward Women Scale. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 2, 1-52.
30.
Tavris, C. , & Wade, C. (1984). The longest war (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
31.
Taylor, S. E. (1981). A categorization approach to stereotyping. In D. Hamilton (Ed.), Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
32.
Thompson, M. M. , Zanna, M. P., & Griffin, D. W. (1995). Let's not be indifferent about (attitudinal) ambivalence. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 361-386). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
