From Agents to Objects

Sexist Attitudes and Neural Responses to Sexualized Targets

Bibliographic Data

ID23328773
AuthorsMina Cikara (0000-0002-6612-4474, 1Princeton University), Jennifer L Eberhardt (0000-0003-1687-8128, 2Stanford University), Susan T Fiske (0000-0002-1693-3425, 1Princeton University)
Year2011
Volume23
Issue3
Pages540-551
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0898-929X • E-ISSN: 1530-8898
PublisherMIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/jocn.2010.21497
PMID20350187
PMCIDPMC3801174
OpenAlexW2168438636
LanguageEN
Citations received101
References cited92

Agency attribution is a hallmark of mind perception; thus, diminished attributions of agency may disrupt social–cognition processes typically elicited by human targets. The current studies examine the effect of perceivers' sexist attitudes on associations of agency with, and neural responses to, images of sexualized and clothed men and women. In Study 1, male (but not female) participants with higher hostile sexism scores more quickly associated sexualized women with first-person action verbs (“handle”) and clothed women with third-person action verbs (“handles”) than the inverse, as compared to their less sexist peers. In Study 2, hostile sexism correlated negatively with activation of regions associated with mental state attribution—medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, temporal poles—but only when viewing sexualized women. Heterosexual men best recognized images of sexualized female bodies (but not faces), as compared with other targets' bodies; however, neither face nor body recognition was related to hostile sexism, suggesting that the fMRI findings are not explained by more or less attention to sexualized female targets. Diminished mental state attribution is not unique to targets that people prefer to avoid, as in dehumanization of stigmatized people. The current studies demonstrate that appetitive social targets may elicit a similar response depending on perceivers' attitudes toward them.

Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Communication · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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