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Women constitute an overwhelming majority of those who experience domestic violence; furthermore, the vast majority of perpetrators of domestic violence go unsentenced. The objectification of women innately implies the denial of humanness, and dehumanization is known to play a role in willingness to engage in and acceptance of interpersonal harm. Yet, important questions remain. The current study examines the type of humanness objectified women are being denied, and how that denial implicates perceptions surrounding domestic assault. We predict that associating women with objects, and not animals, may be uniquely implicated in the lack of consequences for perpetrators—for objects cannot feel pain. In the current study (N = 319), we manipulated the presentation of a woman as sexualized or not and purported that she had been involved in a domestic violence incident. We found that when the target woman was sexualized (and thus objectified), participants associated her with an inert, non-human object (i.e., mechanistically dehumanized her) more than when she was not sexually objectified, but we found no effect of sexualization on animalistic dehumanization. Furthermore, mechanistic dehumanization mediated decreases in perceptions of the sexually objectified woman's suffering as a result of the domestic violence, which decreased the severity of the punishment participants recommended for the perpetrator, while also, increasing victim, and decreasing perpetrator, blame. We discuss critical considerations of the role of dehumanization in domestic violence directed toward women and the lack of consequences for perpetrators of these crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating theorizing from the terror management health model with research on the objectification of women's bodies, we present a novel framework for understanding reactions to breasts in the context of breast cancer: adaptive self‐objectification. We suggest that, despite evidence that objectifying the body has harmful consequences for women, viewing the breasts as objects has the potential to lead to positive outcomes in the context of breast health and cancer. We find evidence for this in the context of mass communication about breast cancer screening, in women's willingness and comfort with engagement in breast cancer screening, and in the decisions women make with respect to cancer treatment (e.g. mastectomy). We conclude with a call to action for research to examine the impact of objectification of the breasts on screening behavior and treatment decisions, and consider how adaptive self‐objectification can be encouraged, with the aim of saving lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐objectification, the internalization of an observer's appearance‐based perspective of one's body, has been theorized and demonstrated to reduce body awareness among women. In this field study, we propose self‐objectification as the mechanism to explain the oft‐observed phenomenon where women wearing little clothing appear unbothered by cold weather, positing that self‐objectification obstructs women's feelings of cold. We surveyed women outside nightclubs on cold nights, assessed self‐objectification, and asked participants to report how cold they felt. Anonymous photos were taken and coded for amount of skin exposure. We hypothesized that self‐objectification would moderate the relationship between clothing coverage and reports of feeling cold. Our hypothesis was supported: women low in self‐objectification showed a positive, intuitive, relationship between skin exposure and perceptions of coldness, but women more highly focused on their appearance did not feel colder when wearing less clothing. These findings offer support for the relationship between self‐objectification and awareness of bodily sensations in the context of a naturalistic setting. We discuss implications of these findings, and also consider limitations, an alternative explanation, and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behaviours recommended for reducing transmission of COVID‐19 – social distancing, wearing masks, and now, vaccination – are aimed at not only reducing one's own risk, but risk to others. We posited that a collectivist mindset, versus individualistic, would facilitate intentions to engage in behaviours aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus when the awareness of mortality is activated. This hypothesis was informed by the terror management health model and tested in two studies. In each study, collective 'we' (vs. the individual 'I') was primed, in conjunction with mortality salience compared to a control condition. The results were generally consistent, with Study 1 showing that when collectivism, but not individualism, was primed, individuals responded to a COVID‐19‐based mortality reminder with a significant increase in health intentions, including social distancing and mask wearing. In Study 2, when mortality was salient, priming individualism led to reduced vaccination intention compared to collectivism. We discuss limitations to the research and conclude with the recommendation that COVID‐19‐based communications highlight the dangers of the virus in conjunction with a focus on the collective 'we' to best encourage optimal virus mitigation behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]