Confronting Sexism: Exploring the Effect of Nonsexist Credentials on the Costs of Target Confrontations

Abstract The goal of the present study was to examine the effect of nonprejudiced credentialing on men who are confronted for sexism. Specifically, this study explored whether providing a male perpetrator with nonsexist credentials intensifies or ameliorates the negative interpersonal outcomes that female confronters often incur. In this experimental study, 147 male undergraduate participants from a university in southern Louisiana, United States, were given false feedback on a gender IAT indicating that they held nonsexist attitudes towards women (or not) and were subsequently confronted by a female experimenter for making a sexist remark (or not). The findings revealed that men who had nonprejudiced credentials viewed a woman who confronted them as less competent and had a stronger preference to avoid her in the future as compared to men who did not have nonprejudiced credentials. Furthermore, confronting was not effective at lowering men’s expressions of gender prejudice. Theoretical implications and practical implications for confronting sexism are discussed.
Source: Sex Roles - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research