Paul Hutchison

The True romantic: Benevolent sexism and paternalistic chivalry

Previous research has shown that individuals high in benevolent sexism positively evaluate women who conform to traditional gender roles (e.g., Glick, Diebold, Bailey-Warner, & Zhu, 1997). In the current study, male and female participants completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) and a new measure of paternalistic chivalry, that is, attitudes that are both courteous and considerate to women but place restrictions on behavior considered appropriate for women during courtship. Consistent with our hypotheses, benevolent sexism was significantly positively related to paternalistic chivalry. Hostile sexism and participant sex were unrelated to paternalistic chivalry.

Contact, Anxiety, and Young People's Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions towards the Elderly.

The populations of many nations are aging rapidly. This trend is happening against a background of research indicating that ageism is the most commonly experienced form of prejudice. The present research used intergroup contact theory as a framework to explore young peoples attitudes and behavioral intentions towards the elderly. Regression analyses confirmed that quality but not frequency of intergenerational contact was positively associated with young peoples attitudes and behavioral intentions towards the elderly. These associations were mediated by intergroup anxiety, whereas aging anxiety did not have a mediational role. Discussion focuses on the importance of the findings for strategies aimed at tackling ageism.

Innovation credit: When can leaders oppose their group's norms?

Two preliminary studies and 5 experiments examined judgments of leaders who challenge their groups norms. Participants viewed information about group members whose attitudes were normative or deviated in a pronormative or antinormative direction. The antinorm member was identified as (a) either a nonleader or an established leader (Study 1), (b) an ex-leader (Studies 2 and 5), or (c) a future leader (Studies 3, 4, and 5). Antinorm future leaders were judged more positively and were granted greater innovation credit (license to innovate and remuneration) relative to antinorm members, ex-leaders, and established leaders. Results are discussed in terms of the idea that leadership can accrue from prototypicality and can also confer the right to define prescriptive norms. However, innovation credit is only granted in the case of future leaders.

Protecting Threatened Identity: Sticking with the Group by Emphasizing Ingroup Heterogeneity

In two studies (Ns=163, 164), the authors tested the prediction that perceptions of group variability can steer and guide the way that loyalty is expressed in times of identity threat. In both studies, participants were classified as lower or higher identifiers on the basis of their scores on a group identification measure, and manipulations involved group variability perceptions (homogeneous ingroup vs. heterogeneous ingroup) and threat to the ingroup. Higher identifiers presented with a homogeneous ingroup perceived more ingroup homogeneity under threat than when there was no threat. In contrast, higher identifiers who perceived the ingroup initially as heterogeneous perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat than in no threat conditions. Lower identifiers perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat (vs. no threat) irrespective of manipulated group variability perceptions. Discussion focuses on different ways that group loyalty can be expressed in times of identity threat.

Anxiety, Outcome Expectancies, and Young People's Willingness to Engage in Contact with the Elderly

A cross-sectional study (N = 61) investigated the relationship between young peoples previous experiences of intergenerational contact and their willingness to engage in future contact with the elderly. Regression analyses confirmed that frequent positive intergenerational contact predicted more positive outcome expectancies, less intergroup anxiety, and more willingness to engage in future contact with elderly people. Meditation analyses confirmed that outcome expectancies mediated the influence of contact on intergenerational anxiety, and intergenerational anxiety, in turn, mediated the influence of both contact and outcome expectancies on willingness to engage in future contact with elderly people. Discussion focuses on the implications for strategies aimed at reducing ageism.

Direct and extended intergenerational contact and young people's attitudes towards older adults.

Research suggests that positive intergenerational contact can improve young peoples attitudes towards older adults. However, todays age‐segregated society may not provide ample opportunities for positive contact between younger and older adults to occur on a regular basis. In three studies, we investigated whether the positive attitudinal outcomes associated with direct contact might also stem from a more indirect form of intergenerational relationship: extended contact. In Study 1 (N = 70), extended contact was associated with more positive attitudes towards older adults even when controlling for direct intergenerational contact (contact frequency and contact quality). In Study 2 (N = 110), the positive effects of direct and extended contact on young peoples age‐related attitudes were mediated by reductions in intergroup anxiety and ageing anxiety. The mediational effects of intergroup anxiety were replicated in Study 3 (N = 95) and ingroup norms additionally emerged as a mediator of the positive effects of extended contact on young peoples attitudes towards older adults. Discussion focuses on the implications for strategies aimed at tackling ageism.

Corralling the Ingroup: Deviant Derogation and Perception of Group Variability

ABSTRACT Two experiments investigated the relationship between the evaluation of a deviant group member and the perceived group variability among participants with varying degrees of ingroup identification. In Experiment 1 (N = 79) ingroup identification was negatively associated with perceived ingroup variability following the presentation of a deviant ingroup member. This relationship was mediated by ratings of the deviant: the stronger the identification, the more negatively the deviant was evaluated, and the more homogeneous the ingroup was perceived. These effects were replicated in Experiment 2 (N = 169), which also showed that there was no association between ingroup identification and the representation of the outgroup following exposure to a deviant outgroup member. The findings suggest that deviant derogation may serve to isolate undesirable members from the rest of the ingroup and protect the groups identity.