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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedVariation in the application of the "promiscuous female" stereotype and the nature of the application domain: influences on sexual harassment judgments after exposure to the Jerry Springer Show
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, April, 2005 by Tara Ferguson, Jeff Berlin, Erica Noles, James Johnson, William Reed, C. Vincent Spicer
DISCUSSION
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The results of this study reveal that activating the promiscuous female stereotype through exposure to a popular television show can affect subsequent judgments of other women (including those in a nonsexual domain). When compared to those who were exposed to clips of women engaged in nonpromiscuous behavior, those who were exposed to clips of women involved in promiscuous behavior reported perceptions of less victim trauma and attributed greater responsibility to the victim in a sexual harassment case. In addition, the findings also demonstrated that, when compared to sexual harassment that involved a physical display or a verbal request, those who witnessed only a verbal comment reported perceptions of less victim trauma and attributed greater responsibility to the victim in a sexual harassment case. There was also evidence that the influence of exposure condition was moderated by the nature of the harassment. Specifically, exposure to media images of stereotypically sexual women led to less favorable perceptions of the victim in a sexual harassment case that involved a verbal comment or a verbal request, but had minimal effects in a sexual harassment case that involved a physical display. Finally, and most important, the present findings demonstrated that individual variation in the application of the promiscuous female stereotype to a sexual harassment victim can mediate the influence of media-based stereotype activation on subsequent perceptions and evaluations of that victim.
In the results of this study, there was clear variation in the application of the promiscuous female stereotype to the sexual harassment victim after exposure to the media images of promiscuous women. These findings are consistent with previous research that has shown that there can be variation in stereotype application after various forms of stereotype activation (e.g., Devine & Monteith, 1993; Monteith, 1996). However, the present findings extend the stereotyping literature by providing the first empirical demonstration that such variation can have direct implications for subsequent perceptual and evaluative operations. Specifically, the findings indicate that the influence of exposure to media images of stereotypically sexual women on sexual harassment judgments was mediated by the variations in application of such a stereotype on sexual harassment victim. Although this study involved sexual harassment victims, the findings also seem to have implications for other perceptual and evaluative domains such as those involving Black men. For example, exposure to stereotypical media depictions of violent Black men has been shown to play a role in subsequent stereotype related judgments (e.g., Johnson et al., 1997, 2000). Differences between the Black men in the media depictions and the Black defendant (i.e., age, appearance, socioeconomic status) may lead to variation in the stereotype trait application to the Black defendant. The present findings suggest that this type of variation may mediate subsequent judgments of defendant guilt and appropriate punishment. Future research that directly addresses such issues certainly seems to be interesting and warranted.
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