Toward a unified theory of objectification and dehumanization

Ethical judgments of poverty depictions in the context of charity advertising

Aid organizations, activists, and the media often use graphic depictions of human suffering to elicit sympathy and aid. While effective, critics have condemned these practices as exploitative, objectifying, and deceptive, ultimately labeling them 'poverty porn.' This paper examines people's ethical judgments of portrayals of poverty and the criticisms surrounding them, focusing on the context of charity advertising. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that tactics that have been decried as deceptive (i.e., using an actor or staging a photograph) are judged to be less acceptable than those that have been decried as exploitative and objectifying (i.e., depicting an aid recipient's worst moments). This pattern occurs both when evaluating the tactics themselves (Studies 1a-1c) and when directly evaluating critics' arguments about them (Study 2). Studies 3 and 4 unpack the objection to deceptive tactics and find that participants' chief concern is not about manipulating the audience's responses or about distorting perceptions of reality. Participants report less concern about non-deceptive manipulation (using emotion to compel donations) and 'cherry-picked' portrayals of poverty (an ad showing an extreme, but real image) so long as there is some truth to the portrayal. Yet they are more sensitive to artificial images (e.g., an actor posing as poor), even when the image resembles reality. Thus, ethical judgments hinge more on whether poverty portrayals are genuine than whether they are representative. This work represents the first empirical investigation into ethical judgments of poverty portrayals. In doing so, this work sheds light on how people make sense of morally questionable tactics that are used to promote social welfare and deepens our understanding of reactions to deception.

Am I being dehumanized? Development and validation of the experience of dehumanization measurement

Scholarly interest in the experience of dehumanization, the perception that one is being dehumanized, has increased significantly in recent years, yet the construct lacks a validated measurement. The purpose of this research is therefore to develop and validate a theoretically grounded experience of dehumanization measurement (EDHM) using item response theory. Evidence from five studies using data collected from participants in the United Kingdom (N = 2082) and Spain (N = 1427), shows that (a) a unidimensional structure replicates and fits well; (b) the measurement demonstrates high precision and reliability across a broad range of the latent trait; (c) the measurement demonstrates evidence for nomological and discriminant validity with constructs in the experience of dehumanization nomological network; (d) the measurement is invariant across gender and cultures; (e) the measurement demonstrates incremental validity in the prediction of important outcomes over and above conceptually overlapping constructs and prior measurements. Overall, our findings suggest the EDHM is a psychometrically sound measurement that can advance research relating to the experience of dehumanization.

Is the Anthropomorphization of Sex Dolls Associated with Objectification and Hostility Toward Women? A Mixed Method Study among Doll Users

Both the ownership and development of sex dolls and robots are passionately debated, with skeptics suspecting that their increasing human-likeness and the accompanying anthropomorphization (i.e., attributing human-likeness) reinforce the objectification of, and hostility toward, women. As empirical data are largely lacking, we scrutinized this hypothesis in a pre-registered study among doll owners (N = 217), comparing two user groups: "toy group" (n = 104; doll as sex toy) and "partner group" (n = 113; doll as partner). We related their objectification tendencies (i.e., seeing women merely as objects, e.g., to promote sexual desire) as well as their hostility toward women, to the anthropomorphization of their doll. Additionally, we collected qualitative data on how participants perceived their doll usage affected their attitudes toward women. The partner group expressed greater levels of hostility and anthropomorphization, moderate in magnitude. Objectification mediated the influence of anthropomorphization on hostility and a higher percentage described a change in attitudes toward women in response to doll use. These data provide the first empirical evidence that the tendency to anthropomorphize dolls is related to negative attitudes toward women. Given the ongoing development of sex robots designed to surpass dolls in human-likeness and anthropomorphization, this finding seems highly significant.

Propagation of societal gender inequality by internet search algorithms

Humans increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient and objective decision-making, yet there is increasing concern that algorithms used by modern AI systems produce discriminatory outputs, presumably because they are trained on data in which societal biases are embedded. As a consequence, their use by human decision makers may result in the propagation, rather than reduction, of existing disparities. To assess this hypothesis empirically, we tested the relation between societal gender inequality and algorithmic search output and then examined the effect of this output on human decision-making. First, in two multinational samples (n = 37, 52 countries), we found that greater nation-level gender inequality was associated with more male-dominated Google image search results for the gender-neutral keyword "person" (in a nation's dominant language), revealing a link between societal-level disparities and algorithmic output. Next, in a series of experiments with human participants (n = 395), we demonstrated that the gender disparity associated with high- vs. low-inequality algorithmic outputs guided the formation of gender-biased prototypes and influenced hiring decisions in novel scenarios. These findings support the hypothesis that societal-level gender inequality is recapitulated in internet search algorithms, which in turn can influence human decision makers to act in ways that reinforce these disparities.

Effects of violent and nonviolent sexualized media on aggression-related thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors: A meta-analytic review

Women are often depicted as sex objects rather than as human beings in the media (e.g., magazines, television programs, films, and video games). Theoretically, media depictions of females as sex objects could lead to negative attitudes and even aggressive behavior toward them in the real world. Using the General Aggression Model (Anderson & Bushman, 2002) as a theoretical framework, this meta-analytic review synthesizes the literature on the effects of sexualized media (both violent and nonviolent) on aggression-related thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Our sample includes 166 independent studies involving 124,236 participants, which yielded 321 independent effects. Overall, the effects were "small" to "moderate" in size (r = .16 [.14-.18]). Significant correlations were found in experimental, cross-sectional, and longitudinal studies, indicating a triangulation of evidence. Effects were stronger for violent sexualized media (r = .25 [.19-.31]) than for nonviolent sexualized media (r = .15 [.13-.17]), although the effects of nonviolent sexualized media were still significant and nontrivial in size. Moreover, the effects of violent sexualized media on aggression were greater than the effects of violent non-sexualized media on aggression obtained in previous meta-analyses. Effects were similar for male and female participants, for college students and non-students, and for participants of all ages. The effects were also stable over time. Sensitivity analyses found that effects were not unduly influenced by publication bias and/or outliers. In summary, exposure to sexualized media content, especially in combination with violence, has negative effects on women, particularly on what people think about them and how aggressively they treat them.

The Impact of Sexualized Video Game Content and Cognitive Load on State Rape Myth Acceptance

The potential negative impact of sexualized video games on attitudes toward women is an important issue. Studies that have examined this issue are rare and contain a number of limitations. Therefore, it largely remains unclear whether sexualized video games can have an impact on attitudes toward women. This study examined the consequences of sexualized video game content and cognitive load (moderator) on rape victim blame and rape perpetrator blame (used as a proxy of rape myth acceptance), and whether the degree of humanness of the victim and of the perpetrator mediated these effects. Participants (N = 142) played a video game using sexualized or non-sexualized female characters. Cognitive load was manipulated by setting the difficulty level of the game to low or high. After gameplay, participants read a rape date story, and were then asked to judge the victim's and the perpetrator's degree of responsibility and humanness. Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), it was hypothesized that playing the video game with a sexualized content would increase the responsibility assigned to the victim and diminish the responsibility assigned to the perpetrator. Further, degree of humanness of the victim and the perpetrator was expected to mediate this relation. The results were partially consistent with these predictions: Playing a video game containing sexualized female characters increased rape victim blame when cognitive load was high, but did not predict degree of humanness accorded to the victim. Concerning the perpetrator, video game sexualization did not influence responsibility, but partly influenced humanness. This study concludes that video games impact on attitudes toward women and this, in part, due to its interactive nature.

Young Women’s Body Attitudes and Sexual Satisfaction: Examining Dehumanization and Communication as Serial Multiple Mediators

Women’s bodies are frequent sites of stigmatization. The internalization of negative attitudes toward the body can have negative implications for women’s sexual wellbeing. In the current study, we examined the relationships between young women’s internalization of body stigma—including body shape, genitals, and menstrual periods—and sexual satisfaction. Additionally, we tested two mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between body attitudes and sexual satisfaction: dehumanization (i.e., feelings of a loss of autonomy and subjectivity) and communication with a sexual partner (e.g., expressing needs and desires). We collected and analyzed survey data from 569 undergraduate women. We tested serial mediation models, such that more negative body attitudes would predict greater feelings of dehumanization, and more dehumanization would predict less comfort communicating with a sexual partner, and less comfort communicating would then predict decreased sexual satisfaction. We found support for serial mediation, which suggests that the links between body attitudes and sexual satisfaction may be partially explained by feelings of dehumanization and communication with a sexual partner. Our findings identify opportunities for intervention in practice and policy, and further clarify the ways that sociocultural stigma surrounding women’s bodies extends beyond the body—affecting women’s feelings of power, relationships, and sexual lives. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684321994295

An Experiencer, An Animal or An Object? Erection Salience Decreases Men's Perceived Agency

Three experiments investigated the influence of penile erection on ascriptions of mental capabilities to men. Drawing on sexual objectification literature and the distinction between agency and experience in mind perception, three competing predictions were formulated. The mind redistribution hypothesis assumed that penile erection would lower agency and heighten experience attributions, the animalistic dehumanization hypothesis predicted the decrease in agency, but not experience, and the literal objectification hypothesis implied the simultaneous decrease in both agency and experience. In Experiment 1 (N = 219; 128 females), erection salience lowered agency, but not experience capabilities ascribed to male targets. Experiment 2 (N = 201, 113 females) replicated the negative effect of erection salience on perceived agency (but not experience) and revealed that erection salience lowered intentions to hire a male target. This effect was explained with the loss of perceived agency. Experiment 3 (N = 203, 98 females) verified the causal relationship between penile erection, agency and hiring intentions. Taken together, these results supported the animalistic dehumanization hypothesis.

Measuring objectification through the Body Inversion Paradigm: Methodological issues

Objectification occurs when a person is perceived and/or treated like an object. With the present work, we overview the available measures of objectification and present a series of studies aimed at investigating the validity of the task of inverted body recognition proposed by Bernard and colleagues (2012), which might potentially be a useful cognitive measure of objectification. We conducted three studies. Study 1 (N = 101) is a direct replication of Bernard et al.'s study: participants were presented with the same photos of sexualized male and female targets used in the original research. Study 2a (N = 100) is a conceptual replication: we used different images of scantily dressed male and female models. Finally, in Study 2b (N = 100), we investigated a boundary condition by presenting to participants photos of the same models as in Study 2a, but fully dressed and non-sexualized. Using mixed-effects models for completely-crossed classified data structures, we investigated the relationship between the inversion effect and the stimulus' asymmetry, sexualization and attractiveness, and the perceivers' self-objectification, sexism, and automatic woman-human association. Study 1 replicated the original results, showing a stronger inversion effect for male photos. However, no difference between male and female stimuli emerged in either Study 2a or 2b. Moreover, the impact of the other variables on the inversion effect was highly unstable across the studies. These aspects together indicate that the inversion effect depends on the specific set of stimuli and limits the generalizability of results collected using this method.

Self- and Other-Dehumanization Processes in Health-Related Contexts: A Critical Review of the Literature

Dehumanization is an everyday, pervasive phenomenon in health contexts. Given its detrimental consequences to health care, much research has been dedicated to understanding and promoting the humanization of health services. However, health care service research has neglected the sociopsychological processes involved in the dehumanization of self and others, in formal but also informal health-related contexts. Drawing upon sociopsychological models of dehumanization, this article will bridge this gap by presenting a critical review of studies on everyday meaning-making and person perception processes of dehumanization in health-related contexts. A database search was conducted in PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, using a combination of keywords on dehumanization and health/illness/body; 3,229 references were screened; 95 full texts were assessed for eligibility; 59 studies were included. Most studies focused on informal contexts, reflecting a decontextualized and one-sided view of dehumanization (i.e., not integrating actors’ and victims’ perspectives). Despite the dominant focus on self-dehumanization, emerging perspectives uncover the role of processes that deny human uniqueness to others, and their individual determinants and consequences for mental health. A few studies bring to light the functions of a variety of dehumanizing body metaphors on self- and other-dehumanization. These trends in the literature leave several gaps, which are here critically analyzed to inform future research.

(Don't) Look at Me! How the Assumed Consensual or Non-Consensual Distribution Affects Perception and Evaluation of Sexting Images

The non-consensual sharing of an intimate image is a serious breach of a person’s right to privacy and can lead to severe psychosocial consequences. However, little research has been conducted on the reasons for consuming intimate pictures that have been shared non-consensually. This study aims to investigate how the supposed consensual or non-consensual distribution of sexting images affects the perception and evaluation of these images. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The same intimate images were shown to all participants. However, one group assumed that the photos were shared voluntarily, whereas the other group were told that the photos were distributed non-consensually. While the participants completed several tasks such as rating the sexual attractiveness of the depicted person, their eye-movements were being tracked. The results from this study show that viewing behavior and the evaluation of sexting images are influenced by the supposed way of distribution. In line with objectification theory men who assumed that the pictures were distributed non-consensually spent more time looking at the body of the depicted person. This so-called ‘objectifying gaze’ was also more pronounced in participants with higher tendencies to accept myths about sexual aggression or general tendencies to objectify others. In conclusion, these results suggest that prevention campaigns promoting ‘sexting abstinence’ and thus attributing responsibility for non-consensual distribution of such images to the depicted persons are insufficient. Rather, it is necessary to emphasize the illegitimacy of the non-consensual distribution of sexting images, especially among male consumers of the material.

Objectifying Women's Bodies Is Acceptable from an Intimate Perpetrator, at Least for Female Sexists

Objectification of the female body is generating much research. Nevertheless, this has revealed little about whether women's evaluations depend on the level of psychological intimacy with the perpetrator of that objectification. Intimacy theory predicts that objectifying comments would seem more acceptable coming from a close partner, especially for sexist women. The present study begins to fill these gaps by analyzing responses from 301 heterosexual/bisexual adult women in the United States (M age = 37.02, range = 18-72) to appearance and sexual body comments made by four different male perpetrators: strangers, colleagues, friends, or partners. Measures assessed women's perceptions of objectification, as well as reported enjoyment of these comments. As long as they were not negative, comments from heterosexual partners were perceived as the least objectifying and enjoyed the most; comments from colleagues, strangers, and friends were linked with greater objectification and less enjoyment. Additionally, sexist attitudes toward men and women-but more clearly toward men-linked with objectification and enjoyment. Future research directions and practical implications are discussed.

Linked oppression: Connecting animal and gender attitudes

Ecofeminists and animal rights advocates have posited a connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of animals. Although male/female comparisons regarding attitudes toward animals have frequently been considered, only limited research has focused on gender roles and animal attitudes. We therefore examined the relation between gender roles and animal attitudes with undergraduate students (260 males, 484 females) at a public university in Texas. Participants responded to an online Qualtrics survey that assessed their attitudes toward animals, gender norms, and several forms of sexism. The survey also presented participants with questions about their justifications for meat consumption. As hypothesized, pro meat-eating justifications were positively related to sexist attitudes as well as traditional gender roles and negatively related to gender role transcendent attitudes. On the other hand, pro-animal attitudes were positively correlated with gender role transcendent attitudes and negatively correlated with benevolent/hostile sexism and traditional gender attitudes. Our results empirically supported “the linked oppression thesis,” that gender and animal attitudes are connected.

Materialists on Facebook: the self-regulatory role of social comparisons and the objectification of Facebook friends

In this study, we examine chronic materialism as a possible motive for Facebook usage. We test an explanatory mediation model predicting that materialists use Facebook more frequently, because they compare themselves to others, they objectify and instrumentalize others, and they accumulate friends. For this, we conducted two online surveys (N₁ = 242, N₂ = 289) assessing demographic variables, Facebook use, social comparison, materialism, objectification and instrumentalization. Results confirm the predicted mediation model. Our findings suggest that Facebook can be used as a means to an end in a way of self-regulatory processes, like satisfying of materialistic goals. The findings are the first evidence for our Social Online Self-regulation Theory (SOS-T), which contains numerous predictions that can be tested in the future.

From Attire to Assault: Clothing, Objectification, and De-humanization - A Possible Prelude to Sexual Violence?

In the context of objectification and violence, little attention has been paid to the perception neuroscience of how the human brain perceives bodies and objectifies them. Various studies point to how external cues such as appearance and attire could play a key role in encouraging objectification, dehumanization and the denial of agency. Reviewing new experimental findings across several areas of research, it seems that common threads run through issues of clothing, sexual objectification, body perception, dehumanization, and assault. Collating findings from several different lines of research, this article reviews additional evidence from cognitive and neural dynamics of person perception (body and face perception processes) that predict downstream social behavior. Specifically, new findings demonstrate cognitive processing of sexualized female bodies as object-like, a crucial aspect of dehumanized percept devoid of agency and personhood. Sexual violence is a consequence of a dehumanized perception of female bodies that aggressors acquire through their exposure and interpretation of objectified body images. Integrating these findings and identifying triggers for sexual violence may help develop remedial measures and inform law enforcement processes and policy makers alike.

Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995-2015

Sexually objectifying portrayals of women are a frequent occurrence in mainstream media, raising questions about the potential impact of exposure to this content on others' impressions of women and on women's views of themselves. The goal of this review was to synthesize empirical investigations testing effects of media sexualization. The focus was on research published in peer-reviewed, English-language journals between 1995 and 2015. A total of 109 publications that contained 135 studies were reviewed. The findings provided consistent evidence that both laboratory exposure and regular, everyday exposure to this content are directly associated with a range of consequences, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater self-objectification, greater support of sexist beliefs and of adversarial sexual beliefs, and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women. Moreover, experimental exposure to this content leads both women and men to have a diminished view of women's competence, morality, and humanity. Limitations with the existing research approaches and measures are discussed, and suggestions for future research directions are provided.

From Sex Objects to Human Beings

Recent studies have shown that sexualized female bodies are objectified at a cognitive level. Research using the body-inversion recognition task, a robust indicator of configural (vs. analytic processing) within cognitive psychology, shows that for sexualized female bodies, people recognize upright and inverted bodies similarly rather than recognizing upright bodies better than inverted bodies (i.e., an inversion effect). This finding suggests that sexualized female bodies, like objects, are recognized analytically (rather than configurally). Nonetheless, it remains unclear when and why sexualized female bodies are objectified at a basic cognitive level. Grounded in objectification theory, the present experiments examine moderating factors that may prompt more configural processing (i.e., produce an inversion effect) and less objectification of sexualized female bodies. Replicating previous research, sexualized male bodies elicited more configural processing and less objectification compared to sexualized female bodies. We then examined whether reducing the salience of sexual body parts (Experiments 2a and 2b) and adding humanizing information about the targets (Experiment 3) causes perceivers to recognize female bodies more configurally, reducing the cognitive objectification of women. Implications for sexual objectification theory and research, as well as the role of humanizing often-dehumanized sexy women, are discussed. Additional online materials for this article are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ’s website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental .

What looks like sexism and why? The effect of comment type and perpetrator type on women's perceptions of sexism

Sexist comments are not perceived equally in the eyes of women. We extend previous research by examining the degree to which multiple types of potentially sexist comments made by multiple types of men are perceived as sexist. Further, we examine the degree to which three possible mediators--prototypicality, perceived intent, and interdependence--explained these effects. Female undergraduate students (N = 248) were randomly assigned to read a scenario in which a hostile sexist, benevolent sexist, or objectifying comment was made by one of three types of men: a stranger, their boss, or their boyfriend. Results demonstrate that hostile sexism was perceived as more sexist than benevolent sexism or objectification. Comments made by boyfriends were also rated as less sexist than those made by bosses or strangers. Furthermore, perceptions of prototypicality of the comment or perpetrator and perceived intent to harm mediated the effect of study manipulations on perceptions of sexism.