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How Sexual Objectification Affects Women: Self-objectification, Cognitive Performance and Collective Action
Full text linkSexual objectification occurs whenever a person is treated like a sexual object, reduced to a body (or sexual body parts) and used for the pleasure and consumption of others (Bartky, 1980; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). According to Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) women are the main targets of sexual objectification, which is mainly associated with the male objectifying gaze in two contexts: the exposure to sexually objectifying mass media (e.g. television, movies, magazines, advertisements in which women are depicted as sexual objects) and during social interactions. According to the objectification theoretical framework, sexually objectifying experiences are not devoid from important negative effects on women’s psychological well-being. Indeed, the theory proposed that the first direct consequence of sexually objectifying experiences is self-objectification, which leads women to internalize the objectifying observer’s perspective on the physical self, thus reducing the self to an object (Bartky, 1980; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In turn self-objectification has been linked to increased body shame, appearance anxiety, and proclivity to eating, depression, and sexual disorders (Moradi & Hefflick, 2008).
We started our work noticing that, although sexually objectifying experiences are the precursors of self-objectification and its subsequent adverse outcomes on women, very few researchers have actually tested this causal chain by directly manipulating the exposure to sexually objectifying experiences. Therefore, the general aim of the present work was to contribute to the objectification theoretical framework by testing the causal role of sexually objectifying experiences on women’s psychological, cognitive and social responses. Therefore, in Chapter 1 we will present a brief introduction and review of previous research conducted within the objectification theoretical framework.
In Chapter 2, we will present a set of three studies that have investigated the effects of the objectifying male gaze experienced in interpersonal encounters and the exposure to sexually objectifying visual media on women’s psychological outcomes and cognitive performance. In particular we aimed at overcoming possible limitations in the interpretation of previous research that have studied cognitive performance (i.e. Stereotype Threat); taking into account important moderators (i.e. Internalization of sociocultural beauty standards, Social appearance anxiety), we will provide evidence that supports the notion that the exposure to sexually objectifying experiences indeed affects women’s cognitive resources. In addition, we will also investigate possible mechanisms (i.e. Task Intrusive Thoughts, Flow experience) underlying the decrements in performance. Finally, we will bring novel evidence that sexually objectifying experiences are causally linked with adverse psychological outcomes for women (i.e. self-objectification and body dissatisfaction). Our results generally supported the idea that sexually objectifying experiences are the causal precursor of both adverse psychological and cognitive outcomes for women and that important moderators of such causal chain should be taken into account.
In Chapter 3, we will present a final study that has investigated the effects of exposure to sexually objectifying television, as well as a reasoned critique of such media content, on gender collective action inclination and behavioral intentions to participate in activism. The results demonstrate, for the first time, that exposure to a reasoned critique of sexually objectifying television motivates women, but not men, to react and to participate in collective actions that aim at reducing such degrading TV portrayals. The results bring novel evidence that the promotion of a critical view of TV through, for example, sensitizing campaigns, might represent an effective intervention to promote social activism and contrast the sexual objectification vicious cycle.
Finally, in Chapter 4 in light of the objectification theoretical framework we will discuss the implications of the present findings and suggest future directions
Describing my body or my personality? The effects of self-objectification on body monitoring and shame
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Effects of Objectifying Gaze on Women’s Cognitive Performance: the Role of Flow Experience and Internalization of Beauty Ideals
No full textAlthough previous research has demonstrated that objectification impairs female
cognitive performance, no research to date has investigated the mechanisms underlying
such decrement. Therefore, we tested the role of flow experience as one mechanism
leading to performance decrement under sexual objectification. Gaze gender was
manipulated by having male versus female experimenters take body pictures of female
participants (N = 107) who then performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task. As
predicted, a moderated mediation model showed that under male versus female gaze,
higher internalization of beauty ideals was associated with lower flow, which in turn
decreased performance. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to
objectification theory and strategies to prevent sexually objectifying experiences
Does Sex Really Sell? Paradoxical Effects of Sexualization in Advertising on Product Attractiveness and Purchase Intentions
Full text linkTo 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 role of implicit gender spatial stereotyping in mental rotation performance
Full text linkMen 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 di 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
Predicting social media addiction fromInstagram profiles: A data mining approach
Full text linkIn this short paper, we describe an application of data mining techniques
to predict Instagram users’ addiction from a set of features related to (i) Instagram
captions extracted from photos, videos, comments, and stories, and Instagram indicators such as number of followers and following, blocked and closed friends,
and frequency of use. We first applied text mining to explore and describe the main
contents of Instagram captions. Next, we used a set of non parametric models and
ensemble methods to predict Instagram addiction as measured by the Instagram addiction scale [1]. Models were compared via cross-validation using test and training
(random) sets from the original dataset. Results showed that Instagram addiction is
mainly predicted by the overall time spent on Instagram, writing stories and comments, and number of followers. Moreover, the results suggest that Instagram users
made use of photos/videos and stories/comments differently, with the latter being
mostly related to emoticons, experiences, and relationships with other users
Objecting to Objectification: Women’s Collective Action against Sexual Objectification on Television
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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