The Effect of Sexist Humor on Women’s Cognitive Processing
Thomas E.
1
Ford ,
Julie A.
2
Woodzicka ,
1 Western
Astrid
2
Pruitt ,
Shelbi
Carolina University,
2
Hendricks ,
2 Washington
Whitney
1
Petit ,
Andrew
& Lee
Results
Method
Introduction
1
Beveridge
Participants and Design
State Self-Objectification
largely been guided by questions about how sexist humor
Forty-nine female and 50 male undergraduate students from two different
As expected, women but not men reported experiencing greater
affects men's responses to women (Woodzicka & Ford, 2010).
universities in the Southeastern United States participated in this study.
state self-objectification in the sexist humor versus neutral humor
•Research on the social consequences of sexist humor has
•Our study builds on these previous investigations by
addressing the important question of whether exposure to sexist
humor has consequences for how women perceive themselves.
Procedure
•Phase 1—Comedy Clips
First, participants either watched and rated the funniness of either three
sexist comedy skits and one neutral (non-sexist) comedy skit, or four neutral
condition.
Cognitive Processing: Stroop Performance
We computed a measure of cognitive performance time for each
participant by subtracting the time taken to complete block 1 from
comedy skits. Sexist comedy skits portrayed women as sex objects whose
the time taken to complete block 2 (block 2 - block 1). Supporting our
convergence of social cues that have been shown to induce
value is derived from physical appearance, and depicted sexist stereotypes of
hypothesis, women took significantly longer to complete the
state self-objectification in women. It directs their attention to
women as inferior to men.
interference trials relative to the non-interference trials in the sexist
•Many instances of sexist humor represent a powerful
how their bodies look as sex objects and expresses sexist
ideology in a way that represents a socially accepted
perspective for viewing the self.
•Phase 2—Stroop Color Naming Task
humor condition than in the neutral humor condition. In contrast, for
men, the difference in response time between the interference and
Second, participants completed the Stroop color-naming task-a measure of
non-interference trials did not significantly differ for men in the sexist
focused attention. Participants indicated as quickly as possible the font color
humor condition and men in the neutral humor condition.
of words (names of colors) appearing on the computer screen.
•Accordingly, we conducted an experiment to test two
hypotheses derived from objectification theory (Fredrickson &
Roberts, 1997).
H1: Women, but not men, should experience greater state
self-objectification upon exposure to sexist versus neutral
humor.
Participants completed two blocks of 20 trials.
• First block- Non-interference trials (n=10): The name of the color (e.g., Blue)
H2: Because state self-objectification disrupts focused
attention, exposure to sexist humor should impair
women's, but not men's, performance on a cognitive task
requiring focused attention.
matched the font color (e.g., Blue).
•Second block- Interference trials (n=10): The name of the color (e.g., Red)
did not match font color (e.g., Blue).
•Phase 3—Measure of Objectification
Conclusions
The results of our experiment make novel contributions to the
literatures on self-objectification and the social consequences of
sexist humor. First, we found that women uniquely experienced
Noll and Fredrickson's (1998) Self-Objectification Questionnaire (SOQ) was
more state self-objectification following exposure to sexist comedy
designed to measure trait self-objectification. Calogero and Jost (2011)
clips than exposure to neutral comedy clips. Second, results from
modified it to measure state self-objectification. We administered Calogero
the Stroop color-naming task showed that exposure to sexist humor
and Jost's (2011) modified questionnaire.
created for women, but not men, short-term attention deficits.