Perception and Attribution of Benevolent and Hostile Sexism

Perception and Attribution of Benevolent and Hostile Sexism in Intimate Partnerships Eva Baer and Danielle Kellogg

Theoretical framework explaining the complementary nature of benevolent and hostile sexism Ambivalent Sexism Benevolent sexism: a subjectively positive gendered attitude or comment, common in interdependent contexts Hostile sexism: a gender comment or value that is overtly negative, common in competitive contexts

Ambivalent Sexism in Intimate Partnerships Both hostile and benevolent sexism negatively impact relationships (Hammond & Overall, 2013, 2014, 2015, Hammond et al. , 2017) However, attitude alignment can be seen over time (Hammond et al. , 2016) Exposure to sexism is linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes (Fischer & Bolton Holz, 2007; Major & O’Brien, 2005) A partner is more likely to attribute behavior as sexist when the perpetrator is prototypical (Inman & Baron, 1996; Moya et al. , 2007; Reimer et al. , 2014) Generally, women experience benevolent sexism more frequently, but perceive it as less distressing and sexist compared to hostile sexism (Oswald et al. , 2019)

Hypotheses 1 2 3 4 Women will perceive partner benevolent sexism more frequently than partner hostile sexism Women will rate partner hostile sexism as more harmful than partner benevolent sexism Women will rate partner hostile sexism as more intentional than partner benevolent sexism Women will rate partner hostile sexism as more sexist (i. e. attribution) than partner benevolent sexism

128 women in monogamous heterosexual romantic relationship of at least 2 month aged 19 -73, (M = 43. 17) Women recruited on Amazon Mturk Methods Administered via Qualtrics Repeated-measures design Participants rated frequency, perceived harm, perceived intent and attribution of sexist comments

Results 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 freq harm intent BS HS attribute

Correlations for partner benevolent sexism variables Frequency partner BS Harm Partner BS Intent Partner BS Attribute partner BS Frequency partner BS - - Harm partner BS -. 45*** - - - Intent partner BS -. 31*** . 70*** - - Attribute partner BS -. 40*** . 79*** . 78*** - Note: *p <. 05 **p <. 01 ***p <. 001

Correlations for partner hostile sexism Frequency Harm partner HS Intent Partner Attribute HS partner HS - - Harm partner HS -. 12 - - - Intent partner HS. 22* . 75*** - - Attribute partner HS -. 14 . 87*** . 77*** - Note: *p <. 05 **p <. 01 ***p <. 001 Frequency partner HS

Women perceive and attribute different forms of partner sexism differently Discussion Correlation data suggests that perceived harm and perceived intent are important predictors of whether women attribute partner sexism In contrast, frequency is less important in relation to attributions