Individual differences in distancing responses to women on a photo choice task

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1-1-1990

Abstract

A heterogeneous sample of adult women and men responded to a Photo Choice Task (PCT) in which they were asked to make 24 choices between two persons for a hypothetical interaction; eight of the choices were between a woman and a man. Participants also responded to a measure of adherence to Sex Role Stereotypes and to a measure of Adversarial Sexual Beliefs. On the eight choices between a woman and a man on the PCT, men over 30 and younger than 30 chose women below chance level. Women over 30 made other-gender and same-gender choices that did not differ from chance, but the women under 30 chose women over men reliably more than chance. Small but significant positive correlations were found among the scores on the PCT and the belief measures; for the total sample, the greater the choice of men over women for hypothetical interactions, the greater the agreement with sex role stereotypes and with adversarial sexual beliefs. An examination of mean differences in belief scores among groups of persons whose PCT scores (choice of men over women) were low, medium, and high revealed that men who were more likely to turn away from women in hypothetical situations were also more likely to adhere to stereotyped beliefs about sex roles and to view relationships between women and men as adversarial. This same pattern of individual differences was found among women but, for women, only the relationship between PCT scores and sex role stereotyping was significant. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Sex Roles

Volume

22

Issue

1-2

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