Benoît Dardenne

Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures

The authors argue that complementary hostile and benevolent components of sexism exist across cultures. Male dominance creates hostile sexism (HS), but mens dependence on women fosters benevolent sexism (BS)--subjectively positive attitudes that put women on a pedestal but reinforce their subordination. Research with 15,000 men and women in 19 nations showed that (a) HS and BS are coherent constructs that correlate positively across nations, but (b) HS predicts the ascription of negative and BS the ascription of positive traits to women, (c) relative to men, women are more likely to reject HS than BS, especially when overall levels of sexism in a culture are high, and (d) national averages on BS and HS predict gender inequality across nations. These results challenge prevailing notions of prejudice as an antipathy in that BS (an affectionate, patronizing ideology) reflects inequality and is a cross-culturally pervasive complement to HS.

Metacognition: Cognitive and social dimensions

From Social Cognition to Metacognition - Guy Lories, Benoit Dardenne and Vincent Y Yzerbyt Illusions of Knowing - Asher Koriat The Link between Knowledge and Metaknowledge Rapid Feeling-of-Knowing - Adisack Nhouyvanisvong and Lynne M Reder A Strategy Selection Mechanism The Feeling-of-Knowing as a Judgement - Guy Lories and Marie-Anne Schelstreate Knowing Thyself and Others - Thomas O Nelson, Arie Kruglanski and John T Jost Progress in Metacognitive Social Psychology Social Influence on Memory - Herbert Bless and Fritz Strack Beliefs, Confidence and the Widows Ademoski - William B Swann Jr and Michael J Gill On Knowing What We Know about Others Social Judgeability Concerns in Impression Formation - Vincent Y Yzerbyt, Benoit Dardenne and Jacques-Philipppe Leyens The Consciousness of Social Beliefs - Mahzarin R Banaji and Nilanjana Dasgupta A Program of Research on Stereotyping and Prejudice Protecting Our Minds - Timothy D Wilson, Daniel T Gilbert and Thalia Wheatley The Role of Lay Beliefs The Metacognition of Bias Correction - Duane T Wegener, Richard E Petty and Meghan Dunn Naive Theories of Bias and The Flexible Correction Model Correction and Metacognition - Leonard L Martin and Diederik A Stapel Are People Naive Dogmatists or Naive Empiricists during Social Judgements

Prescription of Protective Paternalism for Men in Romantic and Work Contexts

Behavioral prescription specifies how people ought to act. Five studies investigated prescription for men of protective paternalism, a particular form of benevolent sexism, depending on contextual and individual factors. In Studies 1 and 2, female participants prescribed for men more protective paternalistic behavior toward women in a romantic than in a work context. In Study 3, male participants prescribed the same level of protective paternalistic behavior as female participants did. Conversely, more gender egalitarianism was prescribed for men in a work than in a romantic context (Studies 1–3). In Study 4, the same protective paternalistic behavior was labeled as intimacy in a romantic context but was identified to the same extent as intimacy and as sexism in a work context. In Study 5, female participants’ benevolent sexist beliefs predicted their prescription of protective paternalistic behavior for men in both contexts. These studies demonstrated that prescription of protective paternalism for men is a complex phenomenon because it depends on contextual as well as individual variables. These findings need to be added to the list of factors explaining how this particular form of sexism is maintained within gender relationships and how it contributes to women’s subordination.

Structure latente et validation de la version française de l’Ambivalent Sexism Inventory : l’échelle de sexisme ambivalent

Glick and Fiske’s (1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory is a measure of hostile sexism (sexist antipathy) and benevolent sexism (a subjectively positive attitude toward women). This paper proposes a French version of this scale, the Echelle de Sexisme Ambivalent (ESA). Three studies on more than 1 000 participants established the validity of this new scale. The first one is the application of Rasch’s extended model that confirmed the psychometrical qualities of the ESA, for both male and female participants. The second study established the structural and predictive validity in a covariance analysis. This study again showed that both male and female participants displayed the same structural pattern. Next, both discriminant and convergent validity were assessed, by comparison to the Neosexism Scale (Tougas, Brown, Beaton and Joly, 1995) and the Social Dominance Scale (Sidanius and Pratto, 1999). Finally, practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Confirmation and disconfirmation : Their social advantages

In this chapter, we review theory and research on strategies of hypothesis testing. We propose that confirmation is the default option in information processing; however, and contrary to common belief, it is not necessarily a lazy strategy and can even have social advantages. Disconfirmation, on the other hand, may be spontaneous and effortless. We also propose that both strategies, confirmation and disconfirmation, can fulfill inclusionary or exclusionary goals. Finally, a last series of experiments illustrates how perceivers can create ingroup biases without resorting either to confirmation or to disconfirmation. In general, we offer a perspective on perceivers as very flexible gatherers and interpreters of information, who use diverse strategies to their functional advantage.

Benevolent sexism alters executive brain responses

Benevolence is widespread in our societies. It is defined as considering a subordinate group nicely but condescendingly, that is, with charity. Deleterious consequences for the target have been reported in the literature. In this experiment, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to identify whether being the target of (sexist) benevolence induces changes in brain activity associated with a working memory task. Participants were confronted by benevolent, hostile, or neutral comments before and while performing a reading span test in an fMRI environment. fMRI data showed that brain regions associated previously with intrusive thought suppression (bilateral, dorsolateral, prefrontal, and anterior cingulate cortex) reacted specifically to benevolent sexism compared with hostile sexism and neutral conditions during the performance of the task. These findings indicate that, despite being subjectively positive, benevolence modifies task-related brain networks by recruiting supplementary areas likely to impede optimal cognitive performance.

A longitudinal test of the Job Demands-Resources model using perveived stigma and social identity

In occupational psychology, the Job Demands–Resources (JDR) model is considered as a compelling model to explain burnout and work engagement. Despite its robustness, it can be addressed two main criticisms, namely a lack of three-wave longitudinal studies and an exclusive focus on work-related predictors of well-being. The aims of our study are (1) to test the JDR model using a three-wave longitudinal design, and (2) to test the JDR model using predictors reflecting intergroup relationships within the work context. Structural equation modelling analyses were performed on data collected in a Belgian public institution (N = 473). Results indicate that burnout and work engagement are respectively predicted by perceived stigma against ones occupational group and by group identification. Moreover, group identification moderates the relation between perceived stigma and work engagement. Results are discussed in terms of the role of group identification as a coping strategy, as well as with regards to potential effects of what has been called “dirty work”.

Stéréotypes prescriptifs et avantages des groupes dominants

The prescriptive component of stereotypes is defined as a set of beliefs about the characteristics group members should possess. It has mainly been studied regarding gender stereotypes. We believe that the main function of this prescriptive component is to allow dominant group members to maintain subordinate group members in an advantageous position for themselves. To illustrate our proposal, we present several theoretical and empirical papers, showing that the relative status of social groups is a determinant of which characteristics are prescribed to the members of these groups; that subordinates who fail to conform to the prescription are sanctioned; and that dominants prescribe to subordinates characteristics they see as beneficial to their own group.

Similarities between the target and the intruder in naturally occurring repeated person naming errors.

The present study investigated an intriguing phenomenon that did not receive much attention so far: repeatedly calling a familiar person with someone else’s name. From participants’ responses to a questionnaire, these repeated naming errors were characterized with respect to a number of properties (e.g., type of names being substituted, error frequency, error longevity) and different features of similarity (e.g., age, gender, type of relationship with the participant, face resemblance and similarity of the contexts of encounter) between the bearer of the target name and the bearer of the wrong name. Moreover, it was evaluated whether the phonological similarity between names, the participants’ age, the difference of age between the two persons whose names were substituted, and face resemblance between the two persons predicted the frequency of error. Regression analyses indicated that phonological similarity between the target name and the wrong name predicted the frequency of repeated person naming errors. The age of the participant was also a significant predictor of error frequency: the older the participant the higher the frequency of errors. Consistent with previous research stressing the importance of the age of acquisition of words on lexical access in speech production, results indicated that bearer of the wrong name was on average known for longer than the bearer of the target name.

Stereotype contrast effect on neuropsychological assessment of contact-sport players: The moderating role of locus of control

ABSTRACT Introduction: Diagnosis threat has been shown to produce detrimental effects on neuropsychological performance in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Focusing on contact-sport players who are at great risk of mTBI, our study was designed to examine the moderating role of internal locus of control. Specifically, we predicted that following diagnosis threat (reminder of their risk of sustaining mTBI and of its consequences), low-internal contact-sport players would underperform (assimilation to the stereotype), while their high-internal counterparts would outperform (contrast effect). We predicted that effort and anxiety would mediate these effects. Method: Contact-sport players and non-contact-sport players (“control” group) were randomly assigned to one condition (diagnosis threat or neutral) and then completed attention, executive, episodic memory, and working memory tasks. Regarding mediating and moderating variables, participants rated their effort and anxiety (self-report measures) and completed the Levenson (1974) locus of control scale. Regression-based path analyses were carried out to examine the direct and indirect effects. Results: As expected, there was no effect of condition on the control group’s performance. Contact-sport players with moderate and high levels of internal control outperformed (contrast effect) on executive and episodic memory tasks following diagnosis threat compared to the neutral condition. Additionally, the less anxiety moderate- and high-internal contact-sport participants felt, the better they performed on episodic memory and executive tasks. However, contact-sport players low in internal control did not underperform (assimilation effect) under diagnosis threat. Conclusions: Our results suggest that diagnosis threat instructions may have challenged moderate- and high-internal contact-sport participants, leading them to outperform compared to the neutral condition. Individuals who have moderate and high levels of internal locus of control may have higher performance under diagnosis threat compared to the neutral condition because of their feeling of control over their cognitive performance.