Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-04-11DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01576-4
Madison E. Edwards, Rebecca L. Howard Valdivia, Jessica A. Blayney, Anna E. Jaffe
{"title":"Sexual Assault Labeling Over Time Among Gender and Sexual Identity Groups: How and Why Survivors’ Perceptions Changed","authors":"Madison E. Edwards, Rebecca L. Howard Valdivia, Jessica A. Blayney, Anna E. Jaffe","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01576-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01576-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How survivors label victimization experiences that meet the definition of sexual assault can change over time. The current study more closely examines how and why survivors’ labeling of victimization experiences changes over time. Participants were 380 college students (83.7% cisgender women) with a history of sexual assault victimization since age 14. Participants reported the extent to which they considered their most recent sexual victimization experience to be <i>sexual assault</i> one-month post-assault (i.e., retrospectively) and currently (i.e., during participation), then explained their reasons for label changes via open-ended responses. Over half (56.0%) of participants were consistent in their labeling across timepoints, 36.1% increased the extent to which they labeled the experience a <i>sexual assault</i>, and 7.9% decreased the extent to which they labeled the experience a <i>sexual assault</i>. Notably, queer (i.e., LGBTQ+) survivors evidenced the greatest labeling change, and cisgender heterosexual men survivors evidenced the lowest current sexual assault labeling. Using qualitative content analysis, we identified five reasons for broad label change by participants: (1) meaning-making, (2) attributions, (3) (un)certainty, (4) assault characteristics, and (5) emotional and cognitive consequences. These findings demonstrate that survivors’ use of the label <i>sexual assault</i> can decrease over time, and that reasons for broad label change are influenced by event-, individual-, interpersonal-, and societal-level factors. Individuals who support sexual assault survivors are encouraged to recognize that labeling can be a flexible, bidirectional process and validate survivors’ evolving perceptions of their victimization experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143820080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-04-11DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01572-8
Gabriela Hofer, Marla Hünninghaus, Jana Platzer, Sandra Grinschgl, Aljoscha Neubauer
{"title":"Women’s Humility and Men’s Lack of Hubris: Gender Biases in Self-Estimated Spatial Intelligence","authors":"Gabriela Hofer, Marla Hünninghaus, Jana Platzer, Sandra Grinschgl, Aljoscha Neubauer","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01572-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01572-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Women tend to view themselves as less capable than men. Some have interpreted this as female underestimation and male overestimation, a phenomenon called hubris-humility effect. While such an effect could have important practical implications (e.g., on career choices), only few studies compared women's and men's self-estimates to their measured abilities. We investigated the hubris-humility effect in spatial intelligence, a domain in which many studies reported women’s and men’s abilities to differ substantially. Participants (<i>n</i> = 208; 103 women and 105 men; aged 18–37) completed self-estimate and performance measures of spatial intelligence and additional questionnaires on personality and interests. Surprisingly, women and men performed similarly well in the spatial tests. Still, women, on average, provided more negative self-estimates of their overall spatial intelligence and concrete test performance than men. This constituted female humility but not male hubris: Women underestimated themselves, but men did not overestimate themselves. To contextualize the effect, we tested associations between misestimation and specific personality traits (narcissism and honesty-humility). Especially people higher in grandiose narcissism provided overly positive self-estimates. However, even when we accounted for individual differences in grandiose narcissism, women still underestimated themselves more than men. We further investigated interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Women reported lower STEM interests than men—interests that, in turn, showed stronger associations to self-estimated than measured spatial intelligence. Our findings suggest that improving women’s self-views in the spatial domain might contribute towards greater gender equality in STEM.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143823166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“They See Me as Less Than a Man”: The Stigmatization of Men Experiencing Homelessness","authors":"Philippe-Benoit Côté, Ariane Brisson, Sue-Ann MacDonald","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01582-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01582-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of stigma and hegemonic masculinity, this qualitative study describes the stigmatization of men experiencing homelessness. The analysis is based on individual interviews carried out with 44 men experiencing homelessness, aged 23 to 66 years. Using a thematic analysis method, we identified three main themes related to the stigmatization of men experiencing homelessness. The first theme describes four forms of stereotypes attached to men’s experiences of homelessness—“addict,” “psychotic,” “dangerous,” and “minority.” The second theme refers to the symbolic consequences of stigmatization which create a sense of humiliation and shame among participants, to the point of making them feel reduced, as in “less than men.” The third theme describes the stigma management strategies deployed by men to present a positive image of themselves despite experiencing homelessness, which involves playing with the codes of masculinity. This study reveals that the process of stigmatization that affects men experiencing homelessness is based on gendered relationships marked by hegemonic masculinity founded on capitalistic, patriarchal, and “homeism” logics, highly valued in contemporary society.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143789541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-04-07DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01577-3
Francisco Perales, Christine Ablaza, Nicki Elkin
{"title":"Who Are ‘They’? Gender-Neutral Pronoun Adoption by Non-Binary People and Other Gender Groups","authors":"Francisco Perales, Christine Ablaza, Nicki Elkin","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01577-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01577-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The increasing share of individuals adopting gender-neutral pronouns as their personal pronouns represents one of the most significant socio-linguistic shifts of the past decade. Academic research in this space, however, is surprisingly limited. This study relies on unique data from an Australian equity and diversity survey (<i>N</i> = 41,157) to provide first-time empirical evidence on the factors underpinning the adoption of gender-neutral pronouns, focusing on gender identity, outness, allyship, sexual orientation, and other social locations. Our results reveal a high degree of overlap between non-binary identification and adoption of gender-neutral ‘they’ pronouns. However, a non-negligible share of non-binary individuals do not use these pronouns, whereas a small-to-moderate share of individuals from binary genders do so. Not being ‘out’ about their gender identity precluded adoption of ‘they’ pronouns amongst non-binary people, whereas being an active ally, a woman, and sexuality-diverse fostered their adoption amongst binary-gender individuals. These results carry important practical lessons for diversity-and-inclusion training and interpersonal interactions in social settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143789528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-04-02DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01570-w
Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, Remy L. Paullay, Julia Forster, John Tagariello, June C. Paul
{"title":"“Even Here”: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Gender Bias Incidents at a Selective Liberal Arts College","authors":"Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, Remy L. Paullay, Julia Forster, John Tagariello, June C. Paul","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01570-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01570-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We expanded upon previous research by providing a mixed-method investigation of students’ experiences of campus gender bias incidents. Undergraduates (<i>N</i> = 225) from a Northeastern U.S. selective liberal arts college (SLAC) responded to an open-ended prompt about their exposure to incidents of campus bias targeting those across the gender identity spectrum. Qualitative coding and thematic analysis revealed rich information about the existence/prevalence, perceived targets, and types/manifestations of gender bias. While the majority of comments (70.7%) included reports of a specific example of campus gender bias, nearly half (40.4%) of the comments included hedged or second-guessed reports, and nearly a quarter (23.1%) denied encountering gender bias. Comments identified “women” as the perceived targets of gender bias most commonly (36%), followed by cisgender, heterosexual men (12.4%) and “non-cisgender” people (12%). Students described 21 different types of campus gender bias, including misgendering, benevolent sexism, backlash for violating gender stereotypes and stigma for possessing marginalized gender identities, sexualization, verbal and physical aggression, and issues related to institutional handling of sexual assault cases (i.e., Title-IX) and other college policies. Their comments frequently included references to stereotypically-masculine contexts (e.g., STEM, athletics), and particularly highlighted the consequences of campus gender bias for academic/professional advancement as well as sense of belonging/inclusion. Given that evidence of substantial gender bias emerged “even” at a relatively progressive SLAC, we discuss implications for campus climate and gender justice issues more broadly.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-03-26DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01574-6
Hege H. Bye, Frida L. Måseidvåg, Samantha M. Harris
{"title":"Men’s Help-Seeking Willingness and Disclosure of Depression: Experimental Evidence for the Role of Pluralistic Ignorance","authors":"Hege H. Bye, Frida L. Måseidvåg, Samantha M. Harris","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01574-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01574-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When experiencing depressive symptoms, many people delay or avoid seeking professional help. We investigate whether misperceptions of other’s willingness to seek help can be a potential barrier for help-seeking by examining pluralistic ignorance (i.e., when members of a group mistakenly believe that others’ cognitions or behaviors differ systematically from their own) in men and women’s perceptions of others’ help-seeking willingness. Experiment 1 (<i>N</i> = 2042) demonstrated that both men and women underestimate men’s willingness to seek formal help but showed no evidence of pluralistic ignorance in women’s perceptions of “most women’s” help-seeking. For both men and women, self-rated willingness to seek help was strongly associated with the perception that other men/women would seek help. Based on these results, we proposed that a lower willingness to disclose help-seeking for depressive symptoms among men could be a source of misperceptions of men’s help-seeking willingness. Experiment 2 (<i>N</i> = 1528) showed that men were less willing than women to disclose help-seeking for depression to friends and colleagues, which could contribute to misperceptions of men’s help-seeking willingness. We argue that pluralistic ignorance can be a barrier for men’s mental health help-seeking and discuss implications for interventions to increase the number of men who seek help when experiencing depressive symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143713073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women’s Participation in Collective Action for Workplace Gender Equality: The Role of Perceived Relative Deprivation, Resentment, and Moral Conviction","authors":"Silvia Moscatelli, Silvia Mazzuca, Michela Menegatti, Monica Rubini","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01573-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01573-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Gender-based collective action is essential to close widespread gender gaps in the workplace and pursue gender equality. To understand the processes underlying engagement in different forms of action, this research focused on women’s relative deprivation arising from the perception of unjust disparity between women’s and men’s conditions at work. Across one correlational (Study 1; <i>N</i> = 455) and one experimental study (Study 2; <i>N</i> = 320) conducted in Italy, we tested a serial mediational model linking perceived relative deprivation in the workplace to women’s engagement in collective action through resentment about gender inequalities at work and moral conviction to address gender inequality in the workplace. Two forms of collective action were considered: traditional collective action (i.e., organized action, such as signing a petition) and small acts in the workplace (i.e., more informal behaviors for gender equality). Results of the serial mediation model showed that perceiving relative deprivation was associated with a greater willingness to engage in collective action, and this association was explained through resentment and moral conviction. These findings suggest that raising awareness of gender discrimination in the work domain is a critical step toward increasing women’s mobilization to act for gender equality.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143672611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-03-11DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01561-x
Christa Nater, Alice H. Eagly
{"title":"The Fragility of Scientific Knowledge: A Case Study on the Miscitation of Findings on Gender Stereotypes","authors":"Christa Nater, Alice H. Eagly","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01561-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01561-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Miscitation of research findings is a common problem as evidenced by 19% of citations in top psychology journals being in error (Cobb et al., American Psychologist, 79:299–311, 2024). Such errors interfere with the orderly cumulation of knowledge. Providing a case study, this research examines the citations of a recent and highly cited article on gender stereotypes (Eagly et al., American Psychologist, 75:301–315, 2020), which found that communion, agency, and competence stereotypes each showed a distinctive trend over time. Analysis of the 751 documents that cited this article’s findings showed that overall, 59% of citations were accurate and 9% somewhat accurate, yet a surprisingly high rate of 32% were inaccurate. These inaccuracies most often misrepresented findings on agency with 37% of the citing articles being inaccurate, and among these inaccurate citations, 21% directly contradicted the findings by erroneously stating that the tendency to ascribe agency more to men than women had faded over time. Miscitations for the two other stereotype domains were less egregious. Of the communion citations, 25% ignored that the tendency to ascribe communion more to women than men has become stronger over time. Of the competence citations, 18% ignored that most people in recent years believe that women and men are equally competent. The discussion considers possible reasons for misciting findings on gender stereotypes, particularly for the agency stereotype that has favored men over women ever since the 1940s. We further expound on the feminist theme of the fragility of scientific knowledge, especially when research findings compete with preconceptions that people, including researchers, may have about the phenomena of gender.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143599972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sex RolesPub Date : 2025-03-10DOI: 10.1007/s11199-025-01568-4
Michael Prieler, Dave Centeno
{"title":"Some Gender Stereotypes Persist in Filipino TV Ads: A Content Analytic Investigation of TV Advertising in 2010 and 2020","authors":"Michael Prieler, Dave Centeno","doi":"10.1007/s11199-025-01568-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01568-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study compares Philippine television advertisements in 2010 and 2020 to examine possible differences in gender representation. We conducted a content analysis of 254 primetime TV ads from 2010 and 226 from 2020 using established variables, including the gender of the primary character, setting, degree of dress, voiceover, and product category. In terms of differences between 2010 and 2020, men predominated in work settings and women in home settings in 2010, whereas no significant gender differences in settings were observed in 2020. However, men and women continued to be represented stereotypically across several other variables in both 2010 and 2020: Women were more often portrayed as scantily dressed, indicating their sexualization, men were used for voiceovers, reinforcing their role as the “voice of authority,” and cosmetics/toiletries were associated with female primary characters, showing the strong association between women and beauty. Exposure to such representations might affect audiences who learn from these depictions and reinforce existing stereotypes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48425,"journal":{"name":"Sex Roles","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143582743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}