Journal
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 96, Issue 3, Pages 653-664Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/a0012966
Keywords
essentialism; sexism; social stability; social change; discrimination
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Funding
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/E000118/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- ESRC [ES/E000118/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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The authors examine how beliefs about the stability of the social hierarchy moderate the link between sexism and essentialist belief's about gender and how the expression of essentialist beliefs might reciprocally affect the social structure. Studies 1 (N = 240) and 2 (N = 143) presented gender-based inequality as stable, changing, or changed. In both studies, sexism was positively associated with essentialism only among men and only when inequality was presented as changing. Study 3 (N = 552) explored the possible consequences of expressing essentialist theories for social change. Exposure to essentialist theories increased both men's and women's acceptance of inequality. Exposure further increased men's support for discriminatory practices and boosted their self-esteem. These patterns demonstrate that although essentialism is linked to prejudice, this link is itself not essential. Rather, essentialism may be invoked strategically to protect higher status when this is threatened by change and may be successful in so doing.
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