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Research suggests that exposure to social networking sites portraying a thin and often sexualized beauty ideal reduces young women’s body satisfaction, while exposure to body-positive content improves it. However, it is unclear whether sexualization could impair the beneficial effects of body-positivity messages. Young Italian women were exposed to one of three experimental conditions showing sexualized beauty ideals, sexualized body positivity, or non-sexualized body positivity that appeared either on Instagram (Study 1, N = 356) or TikTok (Study 2, N = 316). Across the two studies, results showed that, regardless of sexualization, exposure to body positivity increased body satisfaction and positive mood compared with pre-exposure measures, while exposure to sexualized beauty ideals reduced it. Participants in the sexualized beauty ideal condition also engaged in upward appearance social comparison whereas body positivity elicited downward comparison. Problematic social networking sites’ use moderated the effects of condition on body satisfaction, appearance social comparison, and positive mood, while downward comparison mediated the relation between condition and body satisfaction and positive mood. Our results highlight both beneficial and critical aspects of body positivity that should be taken into consideration when designing body image interventions and policymaking.

Women’s representation in social media is becoming increasingly sexualized, even when they are victims of sexual harassment (SH). In the present research, we adopted a bystander approach to investigate the role of victims’ sexualization on bystanders’ reactions to an episode of SH. In Study 1, female participants read a fictitious newspaper article that described a workplace SH episode: According to condition, the article included a picture of the victim who was wearing either sexualized or nonsexualized clothing. In Study 2, which also included male participants, we used a similar procedure and measured a series of traditional beliefs against women equality. As predicted, participants showed lower willingness to help the sexualized than nonsexualized victim: This effect occurred because they attributed lower morality to the victim and blamed her more for the SH event. Study 2 very well replicated Study 1 results and also showed that higher levels of endorsement of traditional masculine norms further enhanced biased perception of the sexualized (vs. nonsexualized) victim. Together, findings suggest that biased evaluations of workplace SH episodes associated with sexualized victims’ appearance, consistent with traditional masculine norms, may have detrimental consequences by increasing legitimization and tolerance toward SH.

To test the “sex sells” assumption, we examined how Italian men and women react to sexualized advertising. Women showed lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward products presented with sexualized female models than with neutral ads, whereas men were unaffected by ads’ sexualization (Study 1,n = 251). Study 2 (n = 197) replicated the overall results. Study 3 (n = 198) tested hostile sexism as a moderator as well as negative emotions as a mediator of consumers’ responses. Especially men with higher hostile sexism showed more purchase intentions after viewing female sexualized ads than neutral ads. Moreover, women’s lower consumer responses toward sexualized female ads were due to higher negative emotions. Study 4 (n = 207) included ads with both female and male models, replicating responses to female sexualization and showing that both women and men had lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward male sexualized ads than neutral ads. Replicating and extending Study 3’s results, women’s negative emotions was the mediator. The present study has practical implications for marketers because it suggests that “sex does not sell.” In addition, considering both the psychological damage and practical inefficacy of sexualized ads, our findings have important implications for public policy.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the causal direction of influence between the ingroup as a whole and the self or another ingroup member considering a key feature of groups, i.e., their perceived meaningfulness. To this goal, in Study 1, 2, and 3 we predicted a preference for self-stereotyping and ingroup-stereotyping in the meaningful social categories of sorority women, left-handed people and psychology students. In Study 4 we further expect that the meaningfulness attributed to a group moderates the direction of causality between individual and ingroup perception. Thus, we used one's Zodiac sign as the ingroup whose degree of meaningfulness varies across participants and we hypothesized higher levels of meaningfulness attributed to the ingroup to be associated with higher self- and ingroup-stereotyping. Using the methodologically stringent Induction Deduction Paradigm, participants were given information on unfamiliar dimensions, about either the ingroup or an individual (self or other ingroup member) and asked to make inferences on those same attributes about the ingroup (induction condition) or the individual (deduction condition). As predicted, a preference for deduction to the self (i.e., self-stereotyping) and deduction to another ingroup member (i.e., ingroup-stereotyping) were found for the meaningful groups of sorority women, left-handed people, and Psychology students (Studies 1, 2, and 3). In Study 4, consistent with predictions, the higher the level of attributed meaningfulness to the Zodiac system the higher the degree of deduction both to the self (self-stereotyping) and to another Zodiac ingroup member (ingroup-stereotyping). Several implications of these results are discussed, for example in relation to the possibility of educational interventions aimed at invalidating intergroup differences.

We investigated the novel hypothesis that a sensitizing web campaign against media sexual objectification would lead to lower male gender-harassing conduct (i.e., number of sexist jokes sent to a chat partner), lower sexual coercion intention (via the Likelihood to Sexually Harass scale), and lower hostile sexism (via the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Across two experiments (Ns = 157; 159), male participants were exposed to one of three videos: (a) a web campaign against female objectification (sensitizing), (b) a nature documentary (control), or (c) a video in which women are portrayed as sexual objects (sexually objectifying). Study 1 and Study 2 together demonstrated that men exposed to the sensitizing video showed lower gender-harassing behavior, lower hostile sexism, and lower sexual coercion intention than participants in the other two conditions altogether. Moreover, the sexually objectifying vs. control video condition led to higher gender-harassing behavior. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the sensitizing video led to lower hostile sexism, which in turn was associated with both lower gender-harassing behavior and lower sexual coercion intentions. The sensitizing video led to unexpectedly higher benevolent sexism; however, benevolent sexism was not associated with higher sexual harassment. We conclude by discussing the importance and practical implications of the results.

Men outscore women in mental rotation. Among the possible explanations for this result are gender stereotypes. Research has shown that instructions confirming or disconfirming the gender stereotype that men are more talented than women may affect performance in some spatial tasks, such as mental rotation, but research so far has shown inconsistent or null results. However, no research to date has assessed whether participants' implicit associations linking men to spatial abilities may modulate these effects. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the moderating role of the implicit gender spatial stereotyping, that is the automatic associations between men vs. women and space, in male and female participants receiving either stereotypical (stating that men outscore women) or stereotype-nullifying (stating that there is no gender difference) explicit instructions. Results confirmed that men performed better than women in mental rotation, but also showed that in the stereotype-nullifying condition, the higher the automatic associations between space and men the lower men's performance. The discussion focuses on the importance of considering implicit gender spatial stereotyping as a factor that can modulate mental rotation performance.

Group status influences individuals' identity. Low-status group members identify with their in-group more strongly than high-status group members. However, previous research has mostly analyzed explicit identification with a single in-group. We examined effects of both double group membership, namely gender and sexual orientation, which are two intersecting categories defining high/low-status groups, and contextual identity prime on both implicit self-categorization and explicit identification. Heterosexual and homosexual men and women (N = 296) completed measures of implicit self-categorization and explicit identification with gender and sexual orientation after being primed with gender or sexual orientation. Implicit self-categorization was stronger for low-status than high-status groups: implicit gender self-categorization was higher for women than men, and implicit sexual orientation self-categorization was stronger for homosexual than heterosexual participants. Lesbian participants showed the strongest implicit sexual orientation self-categorization compared to the other three groups. Moreover, homosexual men and women and heterosexual women showed stronger implicit self-categorization with their low- than high-status membership. By contrast, heterosexual men showed equally strong implicit self-categorization with gender and sexual orientation. No differences on explicit identification emerged. Hypotheses on contextual identity primes were only partially confirmed. Findings are discussed in relation to literature about sexual orientation self-categorization and gender stigma. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Objectifying media may promote sexual harassment, including harassment proclivity and harassment conduct. In the current study, we showed that objectifying media affected people’s intervention when they witnessed a harassment episode. After exposure to objectifying TV or to a control video, Italian participants ( N = 126) took part in what they believed to be an employment interview that occurred by computer chat between a male interviewer and a female job applicant; participants could intervene at any time in the conversation. Participants exposed to the objectifying TV (vs. control) video were less likely to intervene and took more time before intervening in the interview in which the interviewer engaged in harassing behavior. They also reported perceiving harassment at a later stage in the interview. We discuss the role of media in creating a normative context that condones harassing behavior, and we suggest potential training programs to increase bystanders’ intervention when sexual harassment occurs.

Stereotype threat theory suggests that a negative stereotype about a social group can undermine the performance of group members in a stereotype-relevant domain. The present research examines this in the domain of second language (L2) competence. Two studies were conducted to test the effects of stereotype threat on L2 performance in a group of Italian-speaking people living in Alto Adige/Südtirol (AA/ST), a bilingual region of Italy. Participants were members of the Italian-speaking community who are generally not very proficient in L2 (i.e., German). When reminded of the negative stereotype, participants who highly identified with the domain (i.e., German language; Study 1) and those who believed that their linguistic group was in a disadvantaged position in AA/ST (Study 2) underperformed in a German language test. These findings are discussed in relation with people's mastery of L2 in bilingual contexts and their consequences for the study of stereotype threat.

There is evidence that discrimination directed toward gay men from some heterosexual men is partially driven by heterosexual men attempting to distance themselves from gay men’s perceived femininity. There is also evidence that many gay men wish they were more masculine than they currently are and will distance themselves from other gay men perceived as being feminine. This persisting stereotype that gay men are insufficiently masculine was theorized to lead gay men to be vulnerable to threats to their masculinity so that they would react to such threats by distancing themselves from feminine-stereotyped gay men and by attempting to present themselves as more masculine. The current study subjected 58 Italian gay men (mean age of 29.10 years, SD = 8.25) to either a threat or an affirmation of their masculinity, and observed reactions to vignettes describing masculine- and feminine-stereotyped gay men. It was hypothesized that those subjected to a threat to their masculinity would report less liking for, less comfort with, and less desire to interact with feminine gay men, while reporting greater similarity to masculine gay men. These hypotheses were partially supported: participants who were threatened in their masculinity reported being more similar to masculine gay men (η2 = .09), and showed less interest in interacting with feminine gay men (η2 = .09) than participants whose masculinity was affirmed. These findings suggest that, despite the fact that they are often stereotyped as feminine, gay men may still feel pressure to conform to masculine role norms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

Although stereotype awareness is a prerequisite for stereotype threat effects (Steele & Aronson, 1995), research showed girls' deficit under stereotype threat before the emergence of math–gender stereotype awareness, and in the absence of stereotype endorsement. In a study including 240 six-year-old children, this paradox was addressed by testing whether automatic associations trigger stereotype threat in young girls. Whereas no indicators were found that children endorsed the math–gender stereotype, girls, but not boys, showed automatic associations consistent with the stereotype. Moreover, results showed that girls' automatic associations varied as a function of a manipulation regarding the stereotype content. Importantly, girls' math performance decreased in a stereotype-consistent, relative to a stereotype-inconsistent, condition and automatic associations mediated the relation between stereotype threat and performance.

This paper investigated the hypotheses that (a) inferences from behaviors to traits would occur more frequently than vice versa, (b) this induction-deduction asymmetry would be facilitated by stereotype congruence but inhibited by incongruence, and (c) the tendency to draw trait inferences from stereotype-congruent but not from stereotype-incongruent behaviors would become more pronounced with increasing levels of Need for Cognitive Closure. Participants read information about a female or male job applicant that was in part relevant to gender, in part gender-neutral. The gender-relevant information was either stereotype-congruent or incongruent. Half of the information was presented as trait-adjectives, half as behavior-descriptive verbs. A recognition task was constructed so that some of the items (traits and behaviors) had actually been seen, some were entirely new, and some were new but had been implied by the information given. All three hypotheses were supported. Implications for intra-individual and interpersonal stereotype maintenance are discussed.

This study examines risk factors for ethnic prejudice during early adolescence in a sample of Italian middle school students (N = 187). It was predicted that low peer status would be associated with negative ratings of ethnic out-groups, but that this relation would be moderated by self-esteem. It was further hypothesized that individuals and their self-nominated groups would be similar with regard to ethnic prejudice, and that antisocial behavior would be positively related to ethnic prejudice. Consistent with our prediction, results revealed that when self-esteem was low, low peer status was associated with high prejudice against out-groups. On the contrary, when self-esteem was high, this relation was non-existent. Moreover, individuals and their self-nominated groups were similar with regard to ethnic prejudice, but only for stigmatized out-groups. A relation was found between antisocial behavior and ethnic prejudice, but only for non-stigmatized out-groups. The present study emphasizes the importance (1) of studying individual differences in risk factors and levels of prejudice and (2) of investigating the influence that peers may have on the development of ethnic prejudice.

The goal of this study was to investigate to role of expectancy as a potential mediator of performance deficits under stereotype threat. In Experiment 1, female students were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they were told that women perform worse (Negative information), equally (Control) or better (Positive information) than men in logical–mathematical tests. Later, they were given a difficult math test and asked to estimate their performance prior to taking the test. Consistent with predictions, participants who considered logical–mathematical abilities important and received negative information regarding the ingroup showed lower levels of expectations and a sharp decrease in performance compared to women in the positive and control conditions. Moreover, expectancy was found to partially mediate the effect of stereotype threat on performance. In Experiment 2, we tested the generalizability of these results to non-stigmatized groups. A group of Black Americans living in Italy were provided with favorable or unfavorable information about either their minority (Blacks) or their majority (Americans) ingroup. Consistent with predictions, participants both in the minority and in the majority condition had lower expectations and under-performed after negative information about the ingroup. However, the level of expectancy was found to mediate the decrease in performance for participants in the Black but not in the American condition. In the discussion of these results it is suggested that, although comparable performance deficits are found for minority and majority members, the underlying processes may be different. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigated for the first time the relations between parents' math–gender stereotypes, parents' evaluations of children's math ability, children's math ability self-perception, and children's appraisal of parents' evaluations, addressing 253 Italian children as young as 6 years of age, their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Novel results revealed the specific role of mothers' math–gender stereotypes in relation to daughters, but not sons: Mothers' math–gender stereotypes predicted girls' math self-perception which, in turn, predicted girls' appraisal of both mothers' and fathers' evaluations of their ability. Importantly, children's appraisal of parents' evaluations was related more strongly with their own self-perception of ability than to parents' actual evaluations, thus supporting the projected appraisal versus the reflected appraisal model of the development of self-perception.

Theoretical background. The expectancy-value model (see Eccles, 2007) emphasizes the role of family influences in the emergence of early gender differences in children’s self-perception of math ability. However, thus far most of the studies have addressed children and their families from late childhood through adolescence. Moreover, past research has often overlooked the role of children’s subjective appraisals of parents’ beliefs in the construction of ability beliefs. Aims and hypotheses. The present study investigated the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ math-gender stereotypes on parents’ evaluations of children’s math ability, and on children’s self-perception of math ability at the age of 6. The study also tested whether children’s appraisal of parents’ evaluations is a mediator of parental influences, as predicted by the expectancy-value model, or rather whether it represents a projection of children’s self-view, as predicted by the projected appraisal model of self-knowledge development (Felson, 1993). Method. Participants were 252 first-graders aged 6 and their fathers and mothers. Children’s self-ratings and their appraisal of both parents’ evaluation of math ability were collected via individual interviews. Parents completed self-administered questionnaires measuring math-gender stereotypes and evaluations of the child’s math ability. Teachers’ ratings of math ability were also collected. Data were analyzed usingtructural equations models with robust estimation methods (i.e. WLSMV and MLR). Results. Parents' evaluations of children's math ability fully mediated the effect of teachers' ratings children's self-perception of ability. Fathers evaluated their sons better than their daughters. Children's self-perception was affected by the interaction between mothers' math-gender stereotypes and children's gender, with a negative effect on girls’ self-perception of ability. Finally, the projected appraisal model fitted the data better than the reflected appraisal model: children's self-perceptions mediated the relationships between actual parents’ evaluations and children’s appraisals, rather than the vice versa. Importantly, girls whose mothers endorsed math-gender stereotypes at a higher extent perceived to be considered as less competent in math by both parents, regardless of parents’ actual evaluations. Discussion and implications. The direct path linking mothers’ stereotypes and daughters’ self-perception suggests that unintended, stereotype-laden non-verbal behaviors may subtly affect girls’ self-perceptions from the very beginning of schooling, regardless of parental appreciation of daughters’ actual math achievement. Overall, results suggest that actions contrasting the gender gap in STEM fields should be promoted from the earliest school grades, with theinvolvement of families as well.

We compared self-stereotyping, in-group-stereotyping, and out-group-stereotyping, among members of high- and low-status groups. Because gender inequality is still present in society, we operationalized status in terms of gender. We considered the male (female) gender category to possess relatively high (low) status. As predicted on the basis of an extension of Mullen's model (1991), Italian men showed significant levels of out-group-stereotyping, but no significant levels of self-stereotyping or in-group-stereotyping. In contrast, Italian women showed significant levels of self-stereotyping, in-group-stereotyping, and out-group-stereotyping. Looked at differently, men showed significantly stronger out-group-stereotyping than women, and women showed significantly stronger self-stereotyping than men. Women also showed marginally stronger in-group-stereotyping than men. The stronger self-stereotyping among women was mediated by greater female in-group identification.

L’esposizione a programmi TV oggettivanti (dove le donne sono relegate al ruolo di oggetti o di mera decorazione) incide sulla probabilità di molestie sessuali nella vita reale? Per rispondere a questa domanda abbiamo condotto 2 studi. A partecipanti maschi, suddivisi in tre condizioni sperimentali, sono stati fatti vedere 3 diversi video clip: un documentario di natura, donne oggettivate, donne in professioni di prestigio. Il numero totale di barzellette sessiste inviate dai partecipanti ad una interlocutrice (fittizia) nel corso di una interazione via Internet ha rappresentato la misura di comportamento di molestia. I partecipanti hanno inoltre compilato le scale Male Role Norms Inventory e Likelihood of Sexual Harassment. Dallo Studio 1 è emerso che i partecipanti esposti al video oggettivante non solo manifestano una maggiore intenzione a molestare le donne (Likelihood of Sexual Harassment), ma molestano effettivamente con maggiore frequenza una sconosciuta interlocutrice nel corso di una interazione via Internet. Dallo Studio 2 è emerso che in seguito alla visione del video oggettivante i partecipanti manifestano una maggiore adesione alle norme tradizionali riguardante il ruolo maschile (Male Role Norms Inventory) che, a sua volta, aumenta la probabilità di molestia (Likelihood of Sexual Harassment). Nel loro insieme, i risultati dimostrano che persino una breve esposizione a materiale video che veicola un modello svilente e denigrante della donna aumenta la tendenza alle molestie e suggeriscono che i programmi TV oggettivanti rappresentino un concreto pericolo per la sicurezza e per la dignità delle donne.

Secondo il modello della Minaccia dello Stereotipo, la salienza di uno stereotipo negativo determina un calo di prestazione nei membri del gruppo sociale stereotipato solo se questi sono consapevoli dello stereotipo che li riguarda. Tuttavia, alcuni studi hanno dimostrato che bambine di 5 anni, che non manifestano consapevolezza dello stereotipo di genere sulla matematica, ottengono risultati peggiori in test di matematica quando viene resa saliente la loro identità di genere. Per risolvere questo paradosso, in tre Studi si è testata l’ipotesi che a 6 anni i bambini possiedano associazioni automatiche coerenti con lo stereotipo di genere sulla matematica, anche in assenza di consapevolezza dello stereotipo stesso, e che tali associazioni automatiche siano responsabili della peggiore prestazione matematica delle bambine in condizioni di minaccia dello stereotipo. Bambini di prima elementare sono stati posti in tre condizioni sperimentali (stereotipica, neutra e contro-stereotipica). Per rilevare la forza delle associazioni automatiche tra le categorie matematica/bambino e italiano/bambina rispetto a matematica/bambina e italiano/bambino è stato utilizzato un Child-IAT. Ai bambini è stato successivamente chiesto di svolgere un test di matematica e infine è stata rilevata la consapevolezza degli stereotipi di genere sulle materie scolastiche. I risultati dello Studio 1 hanno confermato che a 6 anni i bambini non manifestano consapevolezza dello stereotipo, mentre associazioni automatiche stereotipiche sono presenti nelle bambine ma non nei bambini. Lo Studio 2 ha dimostrato che le associazioni automatiche sono malleabili e possono essere rafforzate o indebolite presentando immagini congruenti vs. incongruenti con lo stereotipo. Dai risultati dello Studio 3 è emerso che le bambine ottengono risultati peggiori in un test di matematica quando esposte a immagini coerenti con lo stereotipo e che tale peggioramento è mediato dalla forza delle associazioni automatiche.

Prior studies suggest that awareness of gender stereotypes about math is not achieved before 8-to-9 years of age. However, there is evidence that girls have lower perceptions of math ability as compared to boys, and their math performance is disrupted when their gender identity is made salient from as early as the first elementary grade. To disentangle this apparent paradox, in the present study (N = 162) we tested the hypothesis that six- year-old children may possess automatic associations in line with the gender stereotype about math, in absence of stereotype awareness at the explicit level. Results confirmed that although six-year-old children do not manifest stereotype awareness, automatic as sociations in line with the dominant stereotype (as measured via a Child-IAT) are already present in girls, but not in boys. These findings suggest that gender stereotypes about school subjects may be acquired through automatic cognitive processes before they are manifested at the explicit level.

Previous research on stereotype threat in children suggests that making gender identity salient disrupts girls’ math performance at as early as 5 to 7 years of age. The present study (n = 124) tested the hypothesis that parents’ endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderates girls’ susceptibility to stereotype threat. Results confirmed that stereotype threat impaired girls’ performance on math tasks among students from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Moreover, mothers’ but not fathers’ endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderated girls’ vulnerability to stereotype threat: Performance of girls whose mothers strongly rejected the gender stereotype about math did not decrease under stereotype threat. These findings are important because they point to the role of mothers’ beliefs in the development of girls’ vulnerability to the negative effects of gender stereotypes about math.

Six studies (N = 491) investigated the inductive potential of nouns versus adjectives in person perception. In the first 5 studies, targets were either described by an adjective (e.g., Mark is homosexual) or by the corresponding noun (e.g., Mark is a homosexual) or by both (Study 3). The authors predicted and found that nouns, more so than adjectives, (a) facilitate descriptor-congruent inferences but inhibit incongruent inferences (Studies 1-3), (b) inhibit alternative classifications (Study 4), and (c) imply essentialism of congruent but not of incongruent preferences (Study 5). This was supported for different group memberships and inclinations (athletics, arts, religion, sexual preference, drinking behavior, etc.), languages (Italian and German), and response formats, suggesting that despite the surface similarity of nouns and adjectives, nouns have a more powerful impact on person perception. Study 6 investigated the inverse relationship, showing that more essentialist beliefs (in terms of a genetic predisposition rather than training) lead speakers to use more nouns and fewer adjectives. Possible extensions of G. R. Semin and K. Fiedler's (1988) linguistic category model and potential applications for language use in intergroup contexts are discussed.

Five studies are reported that test the hypothesis that inductive inferences from behaviors to traits are performed more frequently than deductive inferences from traits to behaviors—a phenomenon referred to as the Induction–Deduction Asymmetry (I.D.A., Maass et al., 2001). In Exp. 1 (n = 320) participants read a recommendation letter that contained verb and adjective information about a job candidate. A free recall test shows that information originally presented in verb form was falsely remembered as adjectives whereas the opposite kind of memory distortion occurred much less frequently. In Exp. 2 (n = 52) participants received information about a target person, either presented in trait form (e.g. dominant) or in behavior form (e.g. dominates), with adjectives and verbs sharing the same word–stem. A free recall test confirmed the asymmetrical memory pattern of study 1. In Exp. 3 (n = 52), using the same–word stem paradigm, the verb tense (past vs. present) of verbs was varied. A recognition te...

The goal of the present study was to test the moderating role of Locus of Control beliefs on performance deficits typically associated with stereotype threat. The results from Experiment 1 were consistent with predictions. First, consistent with the Stereotype Threat model, participants showed a decrease in performance when the task was perceived as a potential test of the in-group's negative stereotype (lacking logical mathematical intelligence in the case of women and lacking social intelligence in the case of men). Most important, participants' Locus of Control beliefs were found to moderate participants' vulnerability to stereotype threat: individuals with an Internal Locus of Control, although generally performing better, showed a sharper decrease in the stereotype threat condition compared to individuals with External Locus of Control beliefs. Experiment 2 replicated the results from Experiment 1. Findings are discussed in relation to the psychological characteristics of Internal Locus of Control that may render individuals more vulnerable to the negative effects of stereotype threat. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Two laboratory experiments investigated the hypothesis that threat to male identity would increase the likelihood of gender harassment. In both experiments, using the computer harassment paradigm, male university students (N=80 in Experiment 1, N=90 in Experiment 2) were exposed to different types of identity threat (legitimacy threat and threat to group value in Experiment 1 and distinctiveness threat and prototypicality threat in Experiment 2) or to no threat and were then given the opportunity to send pornographic material to a virtual female interaction partner. Results show that (a) participants harassed the female interaction partner more when they were exposed to a legitimacy, distinctiveness, or prototypicality threat than to no threat; (b) this was mainly true for highly identified males; and (c) harassment enhanced postexperimental gender identification. Results are interpreted as supporting a social identity account of gender harassment.