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Personality and Social Psychology
http://psp.sagepub.com/content/26/9/1094
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/01461672002611006
2000 26: 1094Pers Soc Psychol Bull
Thomas E. Ford
Effects of Sexist Humor on Tolerance of Sexist Events
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PER SON AL ITY AND SO CIAL PSY CHOL OGY BUL LE TIN Ford / SEX IST HU MOR
Ef fects of Sex ist Hu mor
on Tol er ance of Sex ist Events
Thomas E. Ford
West ern Mich i gan Uni ver sity
The results of three exper i ments sup ported the hypoth e sis that
expo sure to sex ist humor increases tol er ance of sex dis crim i na -
tion among peo ple high in hos tile sex ism. The results of Exper i
-
ment 1 revealed that for par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism,
expo sure to sex ist jokes led to greater tol er ance of a sex ist event in
com par i son to expo sure to neu tral jokes or nonhumorous sex ist
com mu ni ca tions. The results of Exper i ments 2 and 3 sug gest
that the acti va tion of a non crit i cal mindset pre sumed to be a nat
-
u ral byprod uct of humor ous com mu ni ca tion is crit i cal for sex ist
humor to increase tol er ance of sex dis crim i na tion. When sex ist
jokes were inter preted in a seri ous, crit i cal man ner, either as a
result of explicit instruc tions (Exper i ment 2) or con tex tual cues
such as the group mem ber ship of the joke teller (Exper i ment 3),
the effects of sex ist humor were nul li fied among par tic i pants
high in hos tile sex ism.
The ini ti a tion and enjoy ment of humor that dis par
-
ages or belit tles social groups, such as sex ist and rac ist
humor, has become increas ingly con tro ver sial in pub lic
domains (Apte, 1987; Barker, 1994). The grow ing pub lic
con ten tion over sex ist and rac ist humor is sup ported by
the ory and research on the social func tions of such
humor. Humor the o rists have argued that dis par ag ing
humor pro vides a seem ingly benign chan nel for the
expres sion of prej u dice or mali cious atti tudes (Freud,
1905/1960; Martineau, 1972; Sev’er & Ungar, 1997;
Stephenson, 1951; Zillmann & Can tor, 1972). Sev’er and
Ungar (1997), for instance, asserted that under the guise
of play and fun, sex ist humor per pet u ates power imbal -
ances between men and women.
Much research on dis par ag ing humor has been
guided by La Fave’s (La Fave, 1972; La Fave, Haddad, &
Maesen, 1976) vicar i ous supe ri or ity the ory and
Zillmann and Can tor’s (1972, 1976) dis po si tion the ory,
which were devel oped to explain why and under what
con di tions dis par age ment of oth ers (or self) elic its
amuse ment. A cen tral hypoth e sis of both the o ries that
has received con sid er able empir i cal sup port is that the
degree of amuse ment elic ited by dis par ag ing humor is
pos i tively related to the degree to which one holds neg a
-
tive (e.g., prej u diced) atti tudes toward the dis par aged
tar get (e.g., Can tor & Zillmann, 1973; La Fave, McCar
-
thy, & Haddad, 1973; McGhee & Duffey, 1983; Wicker,
Barron, & Wil lis, 1980). In the con text of sex ist humor,
for instance, there is sub stan tial evi dence sug gest ing that
regard less of gen der, peo ple enjoy sex ist humor inso far
as they have neg a tive (sex ist) atti tudes toward women
(e.g., Butland & Ivy, 1990; Henkin & Fish, 1986;
LaFrance & Woodzicka, 1998; Moore, Griffiths, & Payne,
1987).
Although research has his tor i cally addressed the ante-
cedents of peo ple’s amuse ment with dis par ag ing humor,
more recent research has begun to inves ti gate the effects
of dis par ag ing humor on social judg ment. Hobden and
Olson (1994) found that tell ing jokes that dis par aged
law yers led par tic i pants to adopt more neg a tive atti tudes
toward law yers. Also, Maio, Olson, and Bush (1997)
found that Cana dian par tic i pants who recited humor
mate rial that dis par aged Newfoundlanders adopted a
more neg a tive ste reo typ i cal rep re sen ta tion of New found-
land ers. Thus, it appears that tell ing dis par ag ing jokes
can have a neg a tive effect on the joke teller’s atti tudes
and ste reo types of the dis par aged group.
The effects of expo sure to dis par ag ing humor, how
-
ever, are con sid er ably less straight for ward. First, Weston
and Thom sen (1993) found that expo sure to sex ist (vs.
neu tral) com edy skits increased the ten dency for par tic i
-
Au thor’s Note: This re search was sup ported by Grant No. 96.011 from
the West ern Mich i gan Uni ver sity Fac ulty Re search and Cre ative Ac tiv
-
ities Sup port Fund awarded to Thomas E. Ford. I would like to thank
Joshua Blevins, Shan non Ebejer, and Fenimore J. John son for their as -
sis tance in data col lec tion. I would also like to thank two anon y mous re
-
view ers for their help ful com ments on this ar ti cle. Ad dress
cor re spon dence to Thomas E. Ford, De part ment of So ci ol ogy, West -
ern Mich i gan Uni ver sity, Kalamazoo, MI 49008; e-mail:
fordt@wmich.edu.
PSPB, Vol. 26 No. 9, September 2000 1094-1107
© 2000 by the So ci ety for Per son al ity and So cial Psy chol ogy, Inc.
1094
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pants to make ste reo type-based eval u a tions of sub se
-
quently encoun tered male and female tar gets. Sim i larly,
Ford (1997) found that White par tic i pants were more
likely to deval u ate an Afri can Amer i can tar get rel a tive to
a White tar get after expo sure to com edy skits that dis par -
aged Afri can Amer i cans but not after view ing com edy
skits that con tained no dis par ag ing con tent. Although
the stud ies by Weston and Thom sen (1993) and Ford
(1997) sug gest that dis par ag ing humor pro motes discrim-
inatory social per cep tion, they each lack nonhumorous
con trol con di tions that are nec es sary to make con clu
-
sions about the spe cial effects of dis par ag ing humor on
social judg ment apart from com pa ra ble nonhumorous
dis par age ment. Indeed, expo sure to nonhumorous ste
-
reo typ i cal por tray als of social groups has been shown to
have sim i lar effects. Hansen and Hansen (1988), for
instance, found that expo sure to nonhumorous ste reo -
typ i cal por tray als of men and women increased the
acces si bil ity and sub se quent use of sex-role ste reo types
to inter pret behav ior.
Finally, in research better designed to test the unique
effects of expo sure to dis par ag ing humor, Olson, Maio,
and Hobden (1999) found that expo sure to dis par ag ing
humor had no con sis tent effects on peo ple’s atti tudes
or ste reo types of the dis par aged groups rel a tive to non-
humor ous dis par age ment or even neu tral humor. These
find ings sug gest that expo sure to dis par ag ing humor
does not uniquely affect sta ble, inter nal knowl edge
struc tures such as the indi vid ual’s ste reo types and atti -
tudes toward the dis par aged groups.
Although it does not appear to affect ste reo types and
atti tudes toward the dis par aged group, expo sure to dis -
par ag ing humor may have a neg a tive impact on social
judg ment by affect ing one’s per cep tion of the social con -
text. Spe cifically, I pro pose that dis par ag ing humor
changes the rules in a given con text that dic tate appro -
pri ate reac tions to dis crim i na tion against mem bers of
the dis par aged group. That is, it expands the bounds of
appro pri ate con duct, cre at ing a norm of tol er ance of
dis crim i na tion against mem bers of the dis par aged
group. Accord ingly, the pres ent research inves ti gates
whether expo sure to sex ist humor alters the perceiver’s
tol er ance of a sex ist event.
The Meta-Mes sage of Sex ist Hu mor
Humor is a dis tinc tive medium of com mu ni ca tion
because it under mines the seri ous ness of the com mu ni -
cated mes sage. That is, a com mu ni ca tion is inter preted
dif fer ently when given in a humor ous ver sus a
nonhumorous man ner. A humor ous com mu ni ca tion is
accom pa nied by cues (e.g., iden ti fi ca tion of the com mu -
ni ca tion as a joke) that sug gest that the com mu ni ca tion
is not to be taken seri ously or exam ined in a crit i cal man -
ner (e.g., Attardo, 1993; Berlyne, 1972; John son, 1990;
Kane, Suls, & Tedeschi, 1977; McGhee, 1972).
Sex ist and other deri sive sen ti ments, then, may be
con sid ered socially accept able (not inap pro pri ate)
when com mu ni cated through humor because humor
acti vates a non crit i cal mindset in which the usu ally
appro pri ate crit i cal reac tions toward such sen ti ments
are inhib ited (Attardo, 1993; Hus band, 1977). Emer son
(1969), for instance, found that by com mu ni cat ing
socially unac cept able sen ti ments in the form of a joke,
the par ties involved essen tially nego ti ate an agree ment
to sus pend the typ i cal norms for respond ing to such sen -
ti ments. Per haps most rel e vant to the pres ent research,
Bill and Naus (1992) found that inci dents of sex dis crim
-
i na tion were con sid ered to be harm less and accept able
by male par tic i pants to the extent that the inci dents were
per ceived as humor ous.
The the sis of the pres ent research is that by mak ing
light of the expres sion of sex ist sen ti ments, sex ist humor
com mu ni cates a meta-mes sage (Attardo, 1993;
Rouhana, 1996) that, in this con text, sex ism in gen eral
need not be taken seri ously or scru ti nized in a crit i cal
man ner. In other words, sex ist humor cre ates an implicit
norm of tol er ance of sex ism in that imme di ate con text.
Fur ther more, if sex ist humor does indeed cre ate an
implicit norm of tol er ance of sex ism, then expo sure to
sex ist humor should lead one to be more tol er ant of a
sex ist event inso far as his or her stan dards of appro pri ate
con duct are derived exter nally from pre vail ing social
norms.
Devine, Monteith, and col leagues (Devine, Monteith,
Zuwerink, & Elliot, 1991; Monteith, Devine, & Zuwerink,
1993) sug gest that the extent to which one derives stan -
dards of appro pri ate con duct from exter nal social
norms is related to the degree to which the per son is
prej u diced. As one might expect, peo ple low in prej u
-
dice have per sonal stan dards that allow for less prej u -
diced con duct than peo ple high in prej u dice. More over,
their stan dards appear to be derived from their own
inter nal ized moral con vic tions. As a result, peo ple low in
prej u dice feel a strong obli ga tion to abide by their inter
-
nal stan dards as well as guilt when they vio late them
(Monteith, 1993). In con trast, peo ple high in prej u dice
are less likely to derive their stan dards of appro pri ate
con duct from their own inter nal ized moral con vic tions.
Instead, they appear to derive their stan dards from pre
-
vail ing social norms—their per cep tion of how oth ers
expect them to behave (Devine et al., 1991; Monteith
et al., 1993). Accord ingly, highly prej u diced peo ple’s
stan dards are more likely to vary depend ing on their per -
cep tions of the social norms in a given con text
(Monteith, Deenen, & Tooman, 1996; Wittenbrink &
Henly, 1996). Wittenbrink and Henly (1996), for
instance, found that par tic i pants high in racial prej u dice
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reported more prej u diced racial atti tudes in the con text
of neg a tive (prej u diced) nor ma tive stan dards than in
the con text of pos i tive (nonprejudiced) nor ma tive stan -
dards. Par tic i pants low in prej u dice, how ever, were unaf
-
fected by the nor ma tive stan dard.
The Role of In di vid ual
Dif fer ences in Sex ism
Glick and Fiske (1996) devel oped a con cep tu al iza
-
tion of ambiv a lent sex ism that dis tin guishes between two
sep a rate sets of sex ist atti tudes: hos tile sex ism and benev
-
o lent sex ism. Hos tile sex ism is rooted in antag o nism and
feel ings of indig na tion toward women, whereas benev o -
lent sex ism is rooted in sub jec tively pos i tive atti tudes
toward women in tra di tional sex-typed roles such as wives,
moth ers, and roman tic love objects. Sup porting the ambiv
-
a lent sex ism model, Glick, Diebold, Bailey-Werner, and
Zhu (1997) found that scores on the Hos tile Sex ism
Scale were pre dic tive of neg a tive atti tudes toward non
-
tra di tional career women, whereas scores on the Benev -
o lent Sex ism Scale were pre dic tive of pos i tive atti tudes
toward women occu py ing tra di tional sex-typed roles.
It seems rea son able to pre sume that peo ple whose
atti tudes toward women are rooted in antag o nism and
resent ment (i.e., hos tile sex ism) are par tic u larly unlikely
to have nonsexist per sonal stan dards that are derived
from inter nal ized moral con vic tions. With less strongly
inter nal ized nonsexist con vic tions, it is likely that peo ple
high in hos tile sex ism derive their stan dards of appro pri
-
ate con duct from social norms in a given con text to a
greater extent than do peo ple low in hos tile sex ism.
There fore, if sex ist humor cre ates an implicit norm of
tol er ance of sex ism in a given con text, then expo sure to
sex ist humor should elicit greater tol er ance of a sex ist
event for peo ple high in hos tile sex ism than for peo ple
low in hos tile sex ism.
EX PER I MENT 1
Exper i ment 1 was designed to exam ine the pos si bil ity
that expo sure to sex ist humor uniquely fos ters approval
or tol er ance of sex dis crim i na tion among peo ple high in
hos tile sex ism. Exper i ment 1 exam ined the effects of dis -
par age ment of women expressed through humor ous
ver sus nonhumorous forms of com mu ni ca tion on tol er -
ance of a sub se quently encoun tered sex ist event. It was
pre dicted that expo sure to sex ist humor would increase
tol er ance of the sex ist event for peo ple who are high in
hos tile sex ism but not for peo ple who are low in hos tile
sex ism.
Method
Par tic i pants and design. Par tic i pants were 64 female
and 36 male stu dents in intro duc tory soci ol ogy and com
-
mu ni ca tion courses. Par tic i pants were placed in one of
eight con di tions in a 2 (hos tile sex ism: high, low) × 2
(com mu ni ca tion con tent: sex ist, neu tral) × 2 (com mu
-
ni ca tion form: humor ous, nonhumorous) between-par -
tic i pants design.
Pro ce dure. Glick and Fiske’s (1996) Ambiv a lent Sex ism
Inven tory was admin is tered to par tic i pants in their
classes. Two to 5 weeks later, a dif fer ent exper i menter
con ducted an osten si bly unre lated study with the par tic i -
pants in their class rooms. The exper i menter intro duced
the study as an inves ti ga tion of com mu ni ca tion behav ior
in social con texts and informed par tic i pants that they
would be asked to read sev eral short sto ries describ ing
social inter ac tions that involved some sort of com mu ni
-
ca tion behav ior. The exper i menter told par tic i pants that
the inter ac tions were fic ti tious but asked them to pre -
tend that the inter ac tions were real and that they were
watch ing each inter ac tion as it actu ally occurred.
The exper i menter then gave par tic i pants a book let
con tain ing five vignettes. Three of the vignettes
described nonsexist “filler” events that were included to
reduce sus pi cion of the true pur pose of the study. The
filler vignettes appeared in the first, third, and fifth posi -
tions in the book lets. The sec ond vignette was used to
intro duce the manip u la tions of com mu ni ca tion con tent
and com mu ni ca tion form. In the humor ous com mu ni -
ca tion con di tions, the vignette began with the fol low ing
state ment: “Donna and two of her friends are work ing
together on an impor tant pro ject for class. At 1:30 A.M.,
how ever, their hard work begins to give way to a giddy
exchange of some rather funny jokes.” Par tic i pants then
read five jokes told among Donna and her friends. In the
sex ist joke con di tion, the first joke was neu tral
(nonsexist) and the remain ing four were sex ist (e.g., A
man and a woman were stranded in an ele va tor and they
knew they were going to die. The woman turns to the
man and says, “Make me feel like a woman before I die.”
So he takes off his clothes and says, “Fold them!”). In the
neu tral joke con di tion, all five of the jokes were
nonsexist.
In the nonhumorous com mu ni ca tion con di tions, the
vignette began with the fol low ing state ment: “Donna
and two of her friends are work ing together on an impor -
tant pro ject for class. At 1:30 A.M., how ever, their hard
work begins to give way to an exchange of some rather
seri ous philo soph i cal social com men tar ies.” Par tic i pants
then read five state ments made by Donna and her
friends that were designed to com mu ni cate the con tent
of each of the jokes from the humor ous com mu ni ca tion
con di tions but in a nonhumorous form (e.g., “I just
think that a woman’s place is in the home and that it’s a
woman’s role to do domes tic duties such as laun dry for
her hus band and fam ily”).
The fourth vignette described the crit i cal sex ist event
that was adapted from one used by Bill and Naus (1992).
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The vignette described a sit u a tion in which a young
woman was treated in a patron iz ing man ner at work by
her male super vi sor. Research by Inman and her col -
leagues (Inman & Baron, 1996; Inman, Huerta, & Oh,
1998) has shown that peo ple are likely to per ceive neg a -
tive inter group behav ior as dis crim i na tion inso far as the
group mem ber ship of the per pe tra tor and vic tim con -
form to their con cep tions of the prototypical case of dis -
crim i na tion (e.g., men der o gat ing women; Whites der o
-
gat ing Blacks). The crit i cal sex ist event in the pres ent
research con forms to the prototypical instance of sex dis
-
crim i na tion: a man der o gat ing a woman. As a result, par -
tic i pants should be ready to see dis crim i na tion (gen der
bias) in the super vi sor’s patron iz ing behav ior (Inman &
Baron, 1996).
1
After read ing each vignette, par tic i pants answered
the fol low ing ques tions: “How humor ous is this sit u a -
tion?” “How enter tain ing is this sit u a tion?” and “How
offen sive is the behav ior described in this sit u a tion?”
Responses were made on scales rang ing from 1 (not at
all ) to 7 (very). Also, after read ing all of the vignettes,
par tic i pants were asked to rate their moods on a scale
rang ing from 1 (very neg a tive) to 7 (very pos i tive).
2
Finally,
par tic i pants were asked to write at least one sen tence giv
-
ing their per sonal reac tions to the exper i ment. Based on
these responses, none of the par tic i pants indi cated sus
-
pi cion of the true pur pose of the study.
Manip u la tions of com mu ni ca tion form and con tent. The
jokes com pris ing the humor ous con di tions were
selected on the basis of pre test rat ings given by 46 pilot
par tic i pants who rated either how sex ist each joke was
(n = 22) or how funny each joke was (n = 24) on scales
rang ing from 1 (not at all ) to 9 (extremely). The four sex ist
jokes were rated as sig nif i cantly more sex ist (M = 6.23, SD =
1.85) than the neu tral jokes (M = 2.34, SD = 1.95), F(1,
21) = 55.21, p < .001, but there was no dif fer ence in fun ni -
ness rat ings between the sex ist jokes (M = 5.19, SD = 1.82)
and the neu tral jokes (M = 5.09, SD = 1.95), F(1, 23) < 1.
It was impor tant that the state ments com pris ing the
nonhumorous con di tions be less humor ous than the
jokes in the humor ous con di tions and that the sex ist
jokes and their cor re spond ing state ments com mu ni cate
an equally sex ist mes sage. There fore, a sec ond group of
41 pilot par tic i pants rated either how sex ist and how
funny each joke was (n = 17) or how sex ist and how funny
each state ment was (n = 24) using scales rang ing from 1
(not at all ) to 9 (very). As expected, the mean fun ni ness
rat ing for the sex ist jokes (M = 5.51, SD = 1.69) was sig nif i
-
cantly higher than the mean fun ni ness rat ing for their
cor re spond ing state ments (M = 3.11, SD = 1.73), F(1, 39) =
19.47, p < .001. Like wise, the mean fun ni ness rat ing for
the neu tral jokes (M = 5.15, SD = 1.58) was sig nif i cantly
higher than the mean fun ni ness rat ing for their cor re
-
spond ing state ments (M = 3.15, SD = 1.34), F(1, 39) =
22.35, p < .001. Fur ther more, there was no dif fer ence
between the mean sex ism rat ing for the sex ist jokes (M =
6.39, SD = 1.86) and the mean sex ism rat ing for the sex ist
state ments (M = 6.28, SD = 1.97), F(1, 39) < 1. In fact,
there were no sig nif i cant dif fer ences in sex ism rat ings
between any of the four sex ist jokes and their cor re
-
spond ing state ments (all Fs < 1).
The sex ist event. To ensure that the sex ist event was
indeed per ceived to be sex ist, a group of 24 pilot par tic i
-
pants read each of the vignettes and listed their thoughts
about them. One par tic i pant did not fin ish the ques tion
-
naire, and of the remain ing 23, 17 (74%) indi cated per -
cep tions of sex ism in their responses to the sex ist event.
None of the par tic i pants, how ever, indi cated per cep
-
tions of sex ism in their responses to the three filler
events. After ward, the par tic i pants rated the extent to
which each vignette described prej u diced or dis crim i na -
tory treat ment of women using a scale rang ing from 1
(not at all dis crim i na tory) to 7 (extremely dis crim i na tory).
Paired sam ple t tests revealed that, as expected, the sex ist
event was rated as more dis crim i na tory (M = 6.00, SD =
1.74) than the first filler event (M = 2.67, SD = 2.12), t(23) =
8.02, p < .001, as well as the sec ond filler event (M = 2.21,
SD = 1.61), t(23) = 8.82, p < .001, and the third filler event
(M = 1.33, SD = .92), t(23) = 10.49, p < .001. Together, the
pre test results sug gest that the sex ist event was clearly
per ceived to be more sex ist than the filler events.
Re sults
Ambiv a lent sex ism scores. Con sis tent with the find ings of
Glick and Fiske (1996) and Glick et al. (1997), there was
a sig nif i cant cor re la tion between scores on the Hos tile
and Benev o lent Sex ism Scales (r = .40, p < .001), sug gest
-
ing that hos tile and benev o lent sex ism are dis tinct but
related com po nents of sex ist atti tudes toward women.
Also, for the remain ing anal y ses, par tic i pants were
placed in the high or low hos tile sex ism con di tions based
on a median split on the dis tri bu tion of scores from the
Hos tile Sex ism Scale (Mdn = 2.31). The mean score was
2.86 in the high hos tile sex ism con di tion and 1.45 in the
low hos tile sex ism con di tion.
Responses to the humor ous/nonhumorous com mu ni ca tion.
For the sec ond vignette, which intro duced the manip u -
la tions of com mu ni ca tion con tent and form, an aggre -
gate fun ni ness rat ing was cal cu lated by aver ag ing
responses to the items ask ing par tic i pants to rate how
humor ous and how enter tain ing the vignette was. The
Cronbach’s alpha for this mea sure was .92. A 2 (hos tile
sex ism: high, low) × 2 (com mu ni ca tion con tent: sex ist,
neu tral) × 2 (com mu ni ca tion form: humor ous,
nonhumorous) × 2 (sex of par tic i pant) anal y sis of vari-
ance (ANOVA) was then con ducted on the aggre gate
fun ni ness rat ing. As expected, there was a sig nif i cant
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main effect of com mu ni ca tion form, F(1, 84) = 9.29, p =
.003, indi cat ing that par tic i pants per ceived the jokes to
be fun nier (M = 5.62, SD = 1.53) than the state ments (M =
3.78, SD = 1.96). There were no other sig nif i cant main
effects or inter ac tion effects.
To deter mine whether par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism per ceived the sex ist mate rial to be fun nier than
did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism (e.g., Zillmann &
Can tor, 1972, 1976), I com pared the fun ni ness rat ings of
sex ist mate rial, col lapsed across com mu ni ca tion form
(
jokes, state ments), among peo ple high ver sus low in
hos tile sex ism. Par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism rated
the sex ist mate rial as fun nier (M = 4.82, SD = 1.82) than
did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism (M = 4.07, SD =
1.94). This dif fer ence, how ever, was not sig nif i cant, F(1,
45) = 1.88, p = .18.
Responses to the item ask ing par tic i pants to rate the
offen sive ness of the vignette also were sub jected to the
same 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 2 (com mu ni ca tion con tent) ×
2 (com mu ni ca tion form) × 2 (sex of par tic i pant)
ANOVA. There was only a sig nif i cant Com mu ni ca tion
Con tent × Com mu ni ca tion Form inter ac tion, F(1, 84) =
15.72, p < .001. The sex ist jokes were con sid ered sig nif i
-
cantly less offen sive (M = 3.28, SD = 1.79) than the sex ist
state ments (M = 4.41, SD = 1.87), F(1, 84) = 5.64, p < .01,
even though pre test rat ings indi cated that each com mu -
ni cated equally sex ist sen ti ments. Indeed, the sex ist
jokes were con sid ered no more offen sive than the neu
-
tral jokes (M = 3.31, SD = 1.64), F < 1. In con trast, the sex -
ist state ments were con sid ered sig nif i cantly more offen
-
sive than the neu tral state ments (M = 2.22, SD = 1.22),
F(1, 84) = 21.93, p < .001. These results sug gest that
regard less of indi vid ual dif fer ences in hos tile sex ism, par
-
tic i pants reacted to the sex ist jokes in a less crit i cal man -
ner than com pa ra ble nonhumorous sex ist state ments.
Responses to the sex ist event. The offen sive ness rat ings of
the sex ist event were reverse scored so that higher scores
indi cated greater tol er ance or less crit i cism of the event.
To deter mine whether expo sure to the sex ist jokes elic
-
ited greater tol er ance of the sex ist event for peo ple high
(vs. low) in hos tile sex ism, a 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 2 (com
-
mu ni ca tion con tent) × 2 (com mu ni ca tion form) × 2 (sex
of par tic i pant) ANOVA was per formed on the offen sive
-
ness rat ings. There was a sig nif i cant main effect of com -
mu ni ca tion form, F(1, 84) = 8.15, p = .005. In gen eral,
par tic i pants in the nonhumorous con di tions were less
tol er ant of the sex ist event (M = 2.78, SD = 1.75) than
were par tic i pants in the humor ous con di tions (M = 3.69,
SD = 2.28). This main effect, how ever, was qual i fied by
the pre dicted Hos tile Sex ism × Com mu ni ca tion Con tent
× Com mu ni ca tion Form inter ac tion effect, F(1, 84) =
5.57, p = .02. The means per tain ing to this inter ac tion
effect are pre sented in Table 1.
As can be seen in Table 1, expo sure to the sex ist jokes
uniquely increased tol er ance of the sex ist event only for
par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism. Par tic i pants high in
hos tile sex ism who were exposed to sex ist jokes were
more tol er ant of the sex ist event (M = 5.29, SD = 2.02) in
com par i son to those who were exposed to neu tral jokes
(M = 2.73, SD = 1.68), F(1, 84) = 11.76, p < .003, or
nonhumorous sex ist state ments (M = 2.55, SD = 1.75),
F(1, 84) = 13.49, p < .002. For par tic i pants low in hos tile
sex ism, how ever, there were no dif fer ences in offen sive
-
ness rat ings of the sex ist event as a func tion of com mu ni
-
ca tion con tent or form. The four-way inter ac tion involv
-
ing sex of par tic i pant was not sig nif i cant, F(1, 84) < 1,
sug gest ing that the effect of sex ist humor on tol er ance of
the sex ist event was mod er ated by indi vid ual dif fer ences
in hos tile sex ism for both men and women.
Because benev o lent sex ism is char ac ter ized by the
ide al iza tion rather than deri sion of women, par tic i pants
high in benev o lent sex ism were pre sumed to have more
strongly inter nal ized nonsexist per sonal stan dards of
appro pri ate con duct. Thus, the effect of sex ist humor on
tol er ance of the crit i cal sex ist event was not expected to
be more pro nounced for par tic i pants high in benev o
-
lent sex ism than for par tic i pants low in benev o lent sex -
ism. A 2 (benev o lent sex ism: high, low) × 2 (com mu ni ca -
tion con tent) × 2 (com mu ni ca tion form) × 2 (sex of
par tic i pant) ANOVA was per formed on the offen sive -
ness rat ings of the crit i cal sex ist vignette. As expected,
the Benev o lent Sex ism × Com mu ni ca tion Con tent ×
Com mu ni ca tion Form inter ac tion effect failed to reach
sig nif i cance, F(1, 84) < 1, as did the four-way inter ac tion
effect involv ing sex of par tic i pant, F(1, 84) < 1.
3
Dis cus sion
The responses to the sec ond vignette, which intro
-
duced the humor ous or nonhumorous com mu ni ca tion,
sup port pre vi ous research sug gest ing that dis par age
-
ment deliv ered in a humor ous form is inter preted in a
less crit i cal man ner than dis par age ment deliv ered in a
seri ous form (e.g., Bill & Naus, 1992). Expres sions of dis
-
par age ment through humor are more likely to be per -
ceived as accept able because of the implicit assump tion
that what is said in humor is “only a joke” and not meant
to be taken seri ously (e.g., Attardo, 1993; Berlyne, 1972;
John son, 1990).
More impor tant, responses to the sex ist event
revealed that par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism were
more tol er ant of the sex ist event after expo sure to sex ist
humor than after expo sure to either neu tral humor or
seri ous sex ist com mu ni ca tions. Expo sure to sex ist
humor, how ever, did not increase tol er ance of the sex ist
event for peo ple low in hos tile sex ism. This find ing is
con sis tent with the hypoth e sis that expo sure to sex ist
1098 PER SON AL ITY AND SO CIAL PSY CHOL OGY BUL LE TIN
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humor cre ates an implicit nor ma tive stan dard of tol er -
ance of sex ism in a given con text.
An alter na tive expla na tion for these find ings is that
the sex ist jokes sim ply increased the acces si bil ity of sex ist
atti tudes or beliefs among par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism rel a tive to the neu tral jokes or the nonhumorous
sex ist state ments. The sex ist jokes did pre sum ably acti -
vate sex ist sen ti ments to a greater degree than the neu -
tral jokes but it is doubt ful that the sex ist jokes acti vated
sex ist sen ti ments to a greater degree than the sex ist state
-
ments. First, pre test rat ings indi cate that the sex ist state -
ments com mu ni cated an equally sex ist mes sage as the
sex ist jokes. Sec ond, par tic i pants in the pres ent study
rated the sex ist state ments as more offen sive than the
sex ist jokes, sug gest ing that the state ments may have
actu ally acti vated more neg a tive sen ti ments. There fore,
an expla na tion in terms of an acces si bil ity effect can not
eas ily account for the whole pat tern of results.
EX PER I MENT 2
Exper i ment 2 was designed to test the hypoth e sis that
the dis tinc tive qual ity of humor, that it is inter preted in a
non crit i cal man ner, is respon si ble for the rela tion ship
between expo sure to sex ist jokes and tol er ance of a sex ist
event. I have pro posed that by express ing sex ist sen ti -
ments in a way that is not meant to be taken seri ously, sex -
ist humor com mu ni cates a mes sage of tacit approval or
tol er ance of sex ism more gen er ally. Thus, if this non crit i
-
cal mindset can be pre vented dur ing expo sure to sex ist
humor—that is, if the perceiver is encour aged to inter -
pret the humor in a seri ous man ner—then the effect of
sex ist humor on tol er ance of sex ist events should be nul -
li fied. Encour age ment to take sex ist humor seri ously
should essen tially com mu ni cate to the perceiver that he
or she should bring to bear crit i cal reac tions to the sex ist
humor that would oth er wise be sus pended. As a result,
the perceiver should be less respon sive to the nor ma tive
stan dard implied by the sex ist humor.
Gollob and Levine (1967) found that when par tic i -
pants were given instruc tions designed to focus their
atten tion on the con tent of highly aggres sive car toons,
they reported less appre ci a tion of the car toons. Instruc
-
tions to focus on the con tent of the car toons encour aged
par tic i pants to think crit i cally about the car toons and
pre vented them from adopt ing the usual non crit i cal,
play ful judg men tal mindset. Accord ingly, in Exper i -
ment 2, I manip u lated the judg men tal mindset in which
par tic i pants inter preted sex ist or neu tral jokes by either
giv ing them (a) instruc tions to focus on the con tent or
under ly ing mes sage of the jokes (seri ous mindset con di
-
tion) or (b) no instruc tions as they read the jokes (con trol
con di tion). I pre dicted that, sim i lar to Exper i ment 1,
expo sure to sex ist jokes in the con trol con di tion would
increase tol er ance of the crit i cal sex ist event among par -
tic i pants high (vs. low) in hos tile sex ism. How ever, expo
-
sure to sex ist jokes in the seri ous judg men tal mindset
con di tion would not. Results con form ing to this pat tern
also would fur ther cast doubt on the acces si bil ity inter -
pre ta tion of the results of Exper i ment 1. Because the sex -
ist com mu ni ca tion is exactly the same in the seri ous
judg men tal mindset con di tion as it is in the con trol con -
di tion, dif fer ences in tol er ance of the sex ist event can not
be due to dif fer ences in the acces si bil ity of sex ist atti -
tudes or beliefs.
Method
Par tic i pants and design. Par tic i pants were 58 female
and 42 male stu dents in intro duc tory soci ol ogy and com -
mu ni ca tion courses. Par tic i pants were placed in one of
eight con di tions in a 2 (hos tile sex ism: high, low) × 2
(humor con tent: sex ist, neu tral) × 2 ( judg men tal mind-
set: seri ous, con trol) between-par tic i pants design.
Pro ce dure. The cover story and pro ce dure were the
same as in Exper i ment 1. Also, as in Exper i ment 1, the
sec ond vignette was used to intro duce the inde pend ent
vari able manip u la tions—humor con tent and judg men -
tal mindset. The vignette was the same as that used in the
humor ous con di tions of Exper i ment 1 except that in the
sex ist joke con di tions, one joke was omit ted because it
tar geted female stu dents and thus seemed par tic u larly
inap pro pri ate to pres ent to stu dents. One joke also was
omit ted from the neu tral joke con di tions so that they
would have the same num ber of jokes as the sex ist joke
con di tions.
There were three other changes made to the stim u lus
book lets. First, before read ing the jokes told among the
female col lege stu dents, par tic i pants in the seri ous judg
-
men tal mindset con di tions were given instruc tions to
“read the jokes on a seri ous level and think about the
con tent of each joke or the under ly ing mes sage that is
Ford / SEX IST HU MOR 1099
TA BLE 1: Mean Tol er ance Rat ings of the Sex ist Event as a Func tion
of Hos tile Sex ism, Com mu ni ca tion Con tent, and Com -
mu ni ca tion Form
Com mu ni ca tion Con tent
Sex ist Neu tral
Non- Non-
Com mu ni ca tion Form Hu mor ous hu mor ous Hu mor ous hu mor ous
Low hos tile sex ism M 2.82
a
2.64
a
3.53
a
3.08
a
SD 2.09 2.01 2.42 1.75
n 11 11 15 13
High hos tile sex ism M 5.29
b
2.55
a
2.73
a
2.79
a
SD 2.02 1.75 1.68 1.67
n 14 11 11 14
NOTE: Higher scores in di cate greater tol er ance. Ad ja cent means that
do not share a com mon sub script dif fer at p < .05.
at WESTERN CAROLINA UNIV on January 31, 2013psp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
implied by the joke.” Par tic i pants in the con trol con di
-
tions were given no explicit instruc tions before read ing
the jokes.
Sec ond, the ques tion ask ing par tic i pants to rate the
offen sive ness of the jokes was omit ted. It seemed pos si -
ble that rat ing the offen sive ness of the jokes could
weaken the manip u la tion of judg men tal mindset by
encour ag ing par tic i pants in the con trol con di tion to
also think crit i cally about the con tent of the jokes and
thus lessen the extent to which they adopt a non crit i cal
judg men tal mindset. After read ing the sec ond vignette,
then, par tic i pants answered the fol low ing ques tions:
“How humor ous is this sit u a tion?” and “How enter tain -
ing is this sit u a tion?” As in Exper i ment 1, responses were
made on scales rang ing from 1 (not at all ) to 7 (very).
The third sig nif i cant change was that after read ing
the fourth vignette (describ ing the sex ist event), par tic i
-
pants responded to two items designed to mea sure tol er -
ance or approval of the sex ist behav ior rather than only
one. So, after the two items about how humor ous and
enter tain ing the vignette was, par tic i pants answered the
fol low ing ques tions: “How offen sive is the behav ior
described in this sit u a tion?” and “How crit i cal are you of
the behav ior described in this sit u a tion?” Responses
were made on scales rang ing from 1 (not at all
) to 7 (very).
As in Exper i ment 1, after par tic i pants had com pleted
their book lets they were asked to write at least one sen
-
tence giv ing their per sonal reac tions to the exper i ment.
Again, none of the par tic i pants indi cated sus pi cion of
the true pur pose of the study.
Re sults
Because there were no mean ing ful gen der-of-par tic i
-
pant effects in Exper i ment 1, pre lim i nary anal y ses were
per formed to test for effects of gen der. There were no
sig nif i cant effects involv ing gen der; there fore, all anal y
-
ses were col lapsed across the gen der vari able.
Ambiv a lent sex ism scores. As in Exper i ment 1, there was
a sig nif i cant cor re la tion between scores on the Hos tile
Sex ism Scale and scores on the Benev o lent Sex ism Scale
(r = .43, p < .001). Also sim i lar to Exper i ment 1, par tic i -
pants were placed in the high or low hos tile sex ism con
-
di tions based on a median split on the dis tri bu tion of
scores on the Hos tile Sex ism Scale (Mdn = 2.27). The
mean score was 2.80 in the high hos tile sex ism con di tion
and 1.45 in the low hos tile sex ism con di tion.
Fun ni ness rat ings of the jokes. An aggre gate fun ni ness
rat ing of the jokes was cal cu lated by aver ag ing the rat ings
of how humor ous and how enter tain ing the sec ond
vignette was. The Cronbach’s alpha for this mea sure was
.94. A 2 (hos tile sex ism: high, low) × 2 (humor con tent:
sex ist, neu tral) × 2 ( judg men tal mindset: seri ous, con
-
trol) ANOVA was then con ducted on the aggre gate
fun ni ness rat ing. As expected, there was a sig nif i cant
main effect of judg men tal mindset, F(1, 92) = 16.01, p <
.001, indi cat ing that par tic i pants per ceived the jokes to
be fun nier in the con trol con di tion (M = 5.70, SD = 1.20)
than in the seri ous judg men tal mindset con di tion (M =
4.70, SD = 1.39). There was also a sig nif i cant main effect
of humor con tent, F(1, 92) = 5.07, p = .03—par tic i pants
rated the neu tral jokes as fun nier (M = 5.47, SD = 1.40)
than the sex ist jokes (M = 4.96, SD = 1.34). There were no
other sig nif i cant effects. Finally, con sis tent with
Zillmann and Can tor’s (1972, 1976) dis po si tion the ory,
par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism rated the sex ist jokes
as fun nier (M = 5.25, SD = 1.10) than did par tic i pants low
in hos tile sex ism (M = 4.69, SD = 1.50). As in Exper i ment 1,
how ever, this dif fer ence failed to reach sig nif i cance, F(1,
51) = 2.42, p = .12.
Responses to the sex ist event. A mea sure of tol er ance of
the sex ist event was cal cu lated by aver ag ing responses to
the items ask ing par tic i pants to rate the fol low ing: “How
offen sive is the behav ior described in this sit u a tion?” and
“How crit i cal are you of the behav ior described in this sit
-
u a tion?” Responses to each item were reverse scored so
that for the aggre gate mea sure, higher scores indi cated
greater tol er ance. Cronbach’s coef fi cient alpha for the
aggre gate mea sure was .87.
To test the pre dic tion that expo sure to sex ist jokes
would elicit greater tol er ance of the sex ist event for par
-
tic i pants high (vs. low) in hos tile sex ism in the con trol
con di tion but not in the seri ous judg men tal mindset
con di tion, a 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 2 (humor con tent) × 2
( judg men tal mindset) ANOVA was per formed on the
tol er ance mea sure. There was a sig nif i cant Hos tile Sex
-
ism × Humor Con tent inter ac tion, F(1, 92) = 3.90, p = .05.
More impor tant, the pre dicted Hos tile Sex ism × Humor
Con tent × Judg men tal Mindset inter ac tion also was sig -
nif i cant, F(1, 92) = 4.85, p = .03. The means for the
three-way inter ac tion effect are pre sented in Table 2.
As can be seen in Table 2, expo sure to the sex ist jokes
increased tol er ance of the sex ist event only for par tic i
-
pants high in hos tile sex ism in the con trol con di tion.
Par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism who were exposed to
sex ist jokes in the con trol con di tion were more tol er ant
of the sex ist event (M = 4.57, SD = 1.91) than were their
coun ter parts who were exposed to neu tral jokes (M =
3.27, SD = 1.25), F(1, 92) = 4.59, p < .05, or sex ist jokes
in the seri ous judg men tal mindset con di tion (M = 3.21,
SD = 1.26), F(1, 92) = 4.88, p < .05. For par tic i pants low in
hos tile sex ism, how ever, there were no dif fer ences in tol
-
er ance of the sex ist event as a func tion of the manip u la
-
tions of humor con tent and judg men tal mindset.
Dis cus sion
The results of Exper i ment 2 rep li cate those of Exper i
-
ment 1, sug gest ing that expo sure to sex ist humor elic its a
1100 PER SON AL ITY AND SO CIAL PSY CHOL OGY BUL LE TIN
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less crit i cal reac tion to a sex ist event for par tic i pants high
in hos tile sex ism. Fur ther more, the find ings of Exper i
-
ment 2 sug gest that the inter pre ta tion of sex ist humor in
a non crit i cal man ner is nec es sary for sex ist humor to cre
-
ate greater tol er ance of sex ism in a given con text. When
the typ i cal non crit i cal reac tion to sex ist humor was pre
-
vented by instruc tions to focus on the con tent of the
humor, the effect of sex ist humor on tol er ance of the
sex ist event was nul li fied for par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism.
The results of Exper i ment 2 also under mine the plau -
si bil ity of the notion that sex ist humor increases tol er
-
ance of sex dis crim i na tion among par tic i pants high in
hos tile sex ism by increas ing the acces si bil ity of sex ist atti
-
tudes or beliefs. The sex ist jokes cre ated greater tol er -
ance of the sex ist event among par tic i pants high in hos
-
tile sex ism in the con trol than in the seri ous judg men tal
mindset con di tion. The acces si bil ity of sex ist sentiments
in those two con di tions, how ever, should have been the
same because the sex ist com mu ni ca tion was iden ti cal.
Fur ther more, in the seri ous judg men tal mindset con di -
tion, par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism who were
exposed to sex ist jokes did not exhibit greater tol er ance
of the sex ist event than did their coun ter parts in the neu
-
tral joke con di tion.
One may argue that an alter na tive inter pre ta tion for
the find ings of Exper i ment 2 is that the instruc tions
given to par tic i pants in the seri ous judg men tal mindset
con di tion cre ated an exper i men tal demand to be more
crit i cal of the sub se quent sex ist event. The pat tern of
results, how ever, does not sup port this inter pre ta tion. If
the instruc tions cre ated a demand to be more crit i cal,
then tol er ance scores should have been lower in each of
the seri ous judg men tal mindset con di tions rel a tive to
the com pa ra ble con trol con di tions. How ever, as evi dent
in Table 2, tol er ance scores were not gen er ally lower in
the seri ous judg men tal mindset con di tions—there was
not a sig nif i cant main effect of judg men tal mindset.
EX PER I MENT 3
The results of Exper i ment 2 sug gest that when peo ple
high in hos tile sex ism are encour aged to think about sex
-
ist jokes in a seri ous, crit i cal mindset, the jokes are less
likely to cre ate tacit approval of a sub se quently encoun
-
tered sex ist event. How ever, the manip u la tion of judg
-
men tal mindset was a bit heavy-handed. That is, the seri -
ous judg men tal mindset was induced by explic itly
instruct ing par tic i pants to focus on the con tent of the
jokes and, in essence, to con sider the jokes as if they were
a form of seri ous com mu ni ca tion. A lim i ta tion of Exper i
-
ment 2, then, is that it did not dem on strate that vari ables
nat u rally oper at ing in the humor con text can lead per -
sons to spon ta ne ously con sider sex ist jokes in a seri ous,
crit i cal mindset and thus pre vent them from cre at ing
tacit approval of sex ism more gen er ally. Accord ingly,
Exper i ment 3 was designed to inves ti gate the mod er at -
ing role of one rel e vant con tex tual vari able, the gen der
of the joke teller.
Rouhana (1996) found that female par tic i pants were
more offended by sex ist jokes when the jokes were told
by a man than when the jokes were told by a woman. In
addi tion, Ford, John son, Blevins, and Zepeda (1999)
found that par tic i pants who were high in hos tile sex ism
were more offended by sex ist jokes if they were told by
men than if they were told by women or joke tell ers
whose gen der was not revealed. Par tic i pants low in hos
-
tile sex ism, how ever, were not dif fer en tially offended by
the sex ist jokes as a func tion of the joke tell ers’ gen der.
These find ings sug gest that, par tic u larly for peo ple high
in hos tile sex ism, the explicit iden ti fi ca tion of a joke
teller as male serves as a cue indi cat ing that sex ist jokes
may rep re sent a socially inap pro pri ate expres sion of hos -
til ity or prej u dice toward women (Rouhana, 1996) and
there fore should be inter preted in a seri ous, crit i cal
man ner.
Because sex ist jokes are likely to be inter preted seri
-
ously when told by a man, they should not cre ate tacit
approval of sex ism more gen er ally. To test this hypoth e
-
sis, in Exper i ment 3, I manip u lated the gen der of per -
sons tell ing sex ist or neu tral jokes. Joke tell ers were
either depicted as men, women, or peo ple whose gen der
was not revealed (unknown). I pre dicted that expo sure
to sex ist jokes in the female and unknown joke teller con
-
di tions would increase tol er ance of the sex ist event
among par tic i pants high (vs. low) in hos tile sex ism.
How ever, expo sure to sex ist jokes in the male joke teller
con di tion was not expected to increase tol er ance of the
sex ist event among par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism
Ford / SEX IST HU MOR 1101
TA BLE 2: Mean Tol er ance Rat ings of the Sex ist Event as a Func tion
of Hos tile Sex ism, Hu mor Con tent, and Judg men tal
Mindset
Hu mor Con tent
Sex ist Neu tral
Judg men tal Mindset Con trol Se ri ous Con trol Se ri ous
Low hos tile sex ism M 2.64
a
2.77
a
4.00
a
3.00
a
SD 1.32 1.65 1.62 1.84
n 14 13 9 13
High hos tile sex ism M 4.57
b
3.21
a
3.27
a
3.58
a
SD 1.91 1.26 1.25 1.59
n 14 12 13 12
NOTE: Higher scores in di cate greater tol er ance. Ad ja cent means that
do not share a com mon sub script dif fer at p < .05.
at WESTERN CAROLINA UNIV on January 31, 2013psp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
rel a tive to par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism. In addi tion,
I pre dicted that par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism would
inter pret the sex ist jokes more crit i cally and thus report
being more offended by them in the male joke teller con
-
di tion rel a tive to the female or unknown joke teller con -
di tions. In con trast, for par tic i pants low in hos tile sex
-
ism, per cep tions of offen sive ness of the sex ist jokes were
not expected to dif fer as a func tion of the gen der of the
joke teller.
Method
Par tic i pants and design. Par tic i pants were 83 female
and 77 male stu dents in intro duc tory soci ol ogy, com mu
-
ni ca tion, geog ra phy, and busi ness courses. Par tic i pants
were placed in one of 12 con di tions in a 2 (hos tile sex
-
ism: high, low) × 2 (humor con tent: sex ist, neu tral) × 3
(gen der of the joke teller: female, unknown, male)
between-par tic i pants design.
Pro ce dure. The cover story and pro ce dure were sim i lar
to those used in Exper i ments 1 and 2. As in Exper i ments
1 and 2, the sec ond vignette was used to intro duce the
inde pend ent vari able manip u la tions—humor con tent
and gen der of the joke teller. I did, how ever, make one
impor tant change to this vignette. I deleted the sug ges
-
tion that the jokes told among the stu dents were funny
because this state ment might have cre ated an exper i
-
men tal demand to inter pret the jokes in a light-hearted,
non crit i cal man ner.
In the female joke teller con di tions, par tic i pants read
four jokes told among a group of stu dents iden ti fied by
their names (Donna, Cindy, Susan) to be women. Spe
-
cifically, par tic i pants read, “Donna and two of her
friends (Cindy and Susan) are work ing together on an
impor tant pro ject for class. At 1:30 A.M., how ever, their
hard work begins to give way to an exchange of jokes.” In
the male joke teller con di tions, the female names were
replaced by David, Chuck, and Scott. Finally, in the
unknown joke teller con di tions, the three stu dents were
iden ti fied as Stu dent 1, Stu dent 2, and Stu dent 3. In both
the sex ist and neu tral joke con di tions, the jokes that fol -
lowed this descrip tion were the same as those used in
Exper i ment 2.
I made three other sig nif i cant changes to the stim u lus
book lets from those used in Exper i ment 2. First, after
read ing the vignette describ ing the sex ist event, par tic i -
pants responded to the fol low ing three items designed
to mea sure tol er ance of the sex ist behav ior: “How offen -
sive is the behav ior described in this inter ac tion?” “How
crit i cal are you of the behav ior described in this inter ac -
tion?” and “To what extent do you think the behav ior
described in this inter ac tion should be inter preted seri
-
ously (as opposed to a light-hearted, play ful man ner)?”
Responses were made on scales rang ing from 1 (not at
all ) to 7 (very). Sec ond, after com plet ing the items fol -
low ing the last vignette, par tic i pants rated the offen sive
-
ness of each of the jokes appear ing in the sec ond
vignette using a scale rang ing from 1 (not at all offen sive)
to 7 (very offen sive). Third, par tic i pants in the unknown
joke teller con di tions then indi cated whether the stu -
dents tell ing the jokes in the sec ond vignette were more
likely to be men or women on a scale rang ing from 1
(much more likely to be women than men) to 5 (much more
likely to be men than women).
As in each of the pre vi ous exper i ments, after par tic i -
pants had com pleted their book lets they were asked to
write at least one sen tence giv ing their per sonal reac -
tions to the exper i ment. Again, none of the par tic i pants
indi cated sus pi cion of the true pur pose of the study.
Re sults
As in Exper i ment 2, pre lim i nary anal y ses were per -
formed that included par tic i pant gen der as a fac tor.
Again, there were no sig nif i cant effects involv ing gen
-
der; there fore, all anal y ses were col lapsed across the gen -
der vari able.
Ambiv a lent sex ism scores. As in Exper i ments 1 and 2,
there was a sig nif i cant, although some what lower, cor re
-
la tion between scores on the Hos tile Sex ism Scale and
scores on the Benev o lent Sex ism Scale (r = .32, p < .001).
Also, as in Exper i ments 1 and 2, par tic i pants were placed
in the high or low hos tile sex ism con di tions based on a
median split on the dis tri bu tion of scores on the Hos tile
Sex ism Scale (Mdn = 2.36). The mean score was 3.02 in
the high hos tile sex ism con di tion and 1.47 in the low
hos tile sex ism con di tion.
Fun ni ness rat ings of the jokes. An aggre gate fun ni ness
rat ing of the jokes was cal cu lated by aver ag ing responses
to the items ask ing par tic i pants to rate how humor ous
and how enter tain ing the sec ond vignette was.
Cronbach’s coef fi cient alpha for this mea sure was .92. A
2 (hos tile sex ism: high, low) × 2 (humor con tent: sex ist,
neu tral) × 3 (gen der of the joke teller: female, unknown,
male) ANOVA was then con ducted on the aggre gate
fun ni ness rat ing. There were no sig nif i cant main effects
or inter ac tion effects.
As in Exper i ments 1 and 2, I com pared the fun ni ness
rat ings of sex ist jokes among par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism (M = 5.60, SD = 1.39) to those among par tic i pants
low in hos tile sex ism (M = 5.38, SD = 1.63). Again, the
results showed a trend in the direc tion pre dicted by
Zillmann and Can tor’s (1972, 1976) dis po si tion the ory;
how ever, the mean dif fer ence was not sig nif i cant, F(1,
78) < 1. To fur ther test whether par tic i pants high in hos -
tile sex ism per ceived sex ist mate rial to be fun nier than
did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism, the aggre gate fun -
ni ness rat ings for sex ist mate rial for each of the three
exper i ments were sub jected to a 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 3
1102 PER SON AL ITY AND SO CIAL PSY CHOL OGY BUL LE TIN
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(exper i ment) ANOVA. The pre dicted main effect of
hos tile sex ism was sig nif i cant, F(1, 174) = 6.76, p = .04.
Across the three exper i ments, par tic i pants high in hos -
tile sex ism rated the sex ist mate rial as fun nier (M = 5.29,
SD = 1.47) than did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism
(M = 4.84, SD = 1.74). There was no dif fer ence between
par tic i pants high ver sus low in hos tile sex ism on fun ni -
ness rat ings of neu tral mate rial.
Offen sive ness rat ings of the sex ist jokes. It was hypoth e
-
sized that par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism would be
more crit i cal of the sex ist jokes, and thus report being
more offended by them, in the male joke teller con di -
tion rel a tive to the female or unknown joke teller con di -
tions. Accord ingly, a 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 3 (gen der of the
joke teller) ANOVA was per formed on the aver age offen -
sive ness rat ing of the three sex ist jokes. The Hos tile Sex
-
ism × Gen der of the Joke Teller inter ac tion was mar gin ally
sig nif i cant, F(2, 74) = 2.78, p = .07. The means per tain ing
to this inter ac tion effect are pre sented in Fig ure 1.
As can be seen in Fig ure 1, par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism rated the sex ist jokes as more offen sive in the
male joke teller con di tion (M = 4.46, SD = 1.87) than in
either the female joke teller con di tion (M = 2.81, SD =
1.47), F(1, 74) = 6.48, p < .025, or the unknown joke teller
con di tion (M = 2.52, SD = 1.62), F(1, 74) = 8.92, p < .01.
The pat tern of results thus sup ports the hypoth e sis, sug
-
gest ing that par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism were
more crit i cal of the sex ist jokes in the male joke teller
con di tion. For par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism, there
were no sig nif i cant dif fer ences in offen sive ness rat ings as
a func tion of the gen der of the joke teller.
Responses to the sex ist event. A mea sure of tol er ance of
the sex ist event was cal cu lated by aver ag ing responses to
the items ask ing par tic i pants to rate “How offen sive is the
behav ior described in this inter ac tion?” “How crit i cal are
you of the behav ior described in this inter ac tion?” and
“To what extent do you think the behav ior described in
this inter ac tion should be inter preted seri ously (as
opposed to a light-hearted, play ful man ner)?”
Responses to each item were reverse scored so that, for
the aggre gate mea sure, higher scores indi cated greater
tol er ance of the sex ist event. Cronbach’s coef fi cient
alpha for the aggre gate tol er ance mea sure was .88.
To test the pre dic tion that expo sure to sex ist jokes
would elicit greater tol er ance of the sex ist event for par
-
tic i pants high (vs. low) in hos tile sex ism in the female
and unknown joke teller con di tions but not in the male
joke teller con di tion, a 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 2 (humor
con tent) × 3 (gen der of the joke teller) ANOVA was per -
formed on the tol er ance mea sure. There was a sig nif i
-
cant main effect of humor con tent, F(1, 148) = 5.20, p =
.024, sug gest ing that, over all, par tic i pants expressed
greater tol er ance of the sex ist event in the sex ist joke
con di tion (M = 3.71, SD = 1.59) than in the neu tral joke
con di tion (M = 3.17, SD = 1.38). There was also a sig nif i
-
cant main effect of hos tile sex ism, F(1, 148) = 21.31, p <
.001. In gen eral, par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism
expressed greater tol er ance of the sex ist event (M = 3.95,
SD = 1.64) than did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism
(M = 2.92, SD = 1.16). Finally, the pre dicted Hos tile Sex
-
ism × Humor Con tent × Gen der of the Joke Teller inter -
ac tion effect did not reach a con ven tional level of sig nif i
-
cance, F(2, 148) = 1.28, p = .28. The mean tol er ance
rat ing for each con di tion is pre sented in Table 3.
It is pos si ble that the strong main effect of hos tile sex
-
ism under mined or obscured the pre dicted three-way
inter ac tion effect. As can be seen in Table 3, par tic i pants
high in hos tile sex ism expressed greater tol er ance than
did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism even in the neu tral
humor con di tions. Planned con trasts were there fore
per formed to fur ther deter mine whether the effects of
sex ist jokes on tol er ance rat ings were atten u ated among
par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism in the male joke teller
con di tion. Sup porting the hypoth e sis, the tol er ance rat
-
ing of par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism who were
exposed to sex ist jokes in the male joke teller con di tion
(M = 3.69, SD = 1.54) was sig nif i cantly lower than the tol
-
er ance rat ing of their coun ter parts aver aged across the
female and unknown joke teller con di tions (M = 4.72,
SD = 1.61), F(1, 148) = 4.77, p < .05. Fur ther more, in the
male joke teller con di tion, par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism who were exposed to sex ist jokes did not express
sig nif i cantly more tol er ance of the sex ist event (M = 3.69,
SD = 1.54) than did par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism
who were exposed to sex ist jokes (M = 2.97, SD = 1.28),
F(1, 148) = 1.59, p > .10, or par tic i pants high in hos tile
sex ism who were exposed to neu tral jokes (M = 3.76, SD =
1.29), F(1, 148) < 1. Over all, then, these anal y ses reveal
that even though the pre dicted three-way inter ac tion
Ford / SEX IST HU MOR 1103
Fig ure 1 Mean of fen sive ness rat ings of the sex ist jokes as a func tion
of hos tile sex ism and gen der of the joke teller.
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was not sig nif i cant, the hypoth e sis was sup ported by the
indi vid ual planned con trasts.
Impres sions of the joke tell ers in the unknown joke teller con
-
di tion. A 2 (hos tile sex ism) × 2 (humor con tent) ANOVA
was per formed on the item ask ing par tic i pants in the
unknown joke teller con di tion to judge whether the joke
tell ers were more likely to be women or more likely to be
men. There were no sig nif i cant main effects or inter ac
-
tion effects. How ever, it is note wor thy that the rat ings of
par tic i pants in all four con di tions were above the mid
-
point on the scale (rat ings ranged from 3.79 to 4.29),
sug gest ing that, regard less of hos tile sex ism or con tent
of the jokes, par tic i pants reported that the joke tell ers
were more likely to be men than women.
Dis cus sion
The results of Exper i ment 3 reveal a num ber of inter
-
est ing find ings. First, the anal y ses of the offen sive ness
rat ings for the sex ist jokes indi cate that par tic i pants high
in hos tile sex ism were more crit i cal of the jokes when
they were told by a male joke teller than when they were
told by either a female joke teller or a joke teller whose
gen der was unknown. This find ing is con sis tent with pre -
vi ous research sug gesting that the gen der of the joke
teller serves as a cue for defin ing how sex ist jokes should
be inter preted for peo ple high in hos tile sex ism (Ford
et al., 1999). Pre sum ably, sex ist jokes deliv ered by a man
were more likely to be per ceived as an expres sion of prej -
u dice toward women and thus vio late nor ma tive stan
-
dards of appro pri ate con duct ( John son, 1990; Rouhana,
1996). As a result, the sex ist jokes were inter preted in a
more crit i cal man ner.
Fur ther more, when the sex ist jokes were inter preted
in a more crit i cal man ner (in the male joke teller con di
-
tion), the effects of those jokes on tol er ance of the sub se -
quently encoun tered sex ist event were ame lio rated. Spe -
cifically, after expo sure to sex ist jokes deliv ered by
women or peo ple whose gen der was not revealed, par tic -
i pants high in hos tile sex ism expressed greater tol er ance
of the sex ist event in com par i son to par tic i pants low in
hos tile sex ism or par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism who
were exposed to neu tral jokes. In con trast, when the sex
-
ist jokes were deliv ered by men, par tic i pants high in hos
-
tile sex ism expressed roughly the same degree of
tolerance as par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism or par tic i -
pants high in hos tile sex ism who were exposed to neu tral
jokes. Thus, con sis tent with the find ings of Exper i ment 2,
it appears that when a per son high in hos tile sex ism is
induced or encour aged to take sex ist jokes seri ously, the
jokes are pre vented from cre at ing greater tol er ance of
sex ism more gen er ally.
Inter est ingly, the pres ent research sug gests that sex ist
or other forms of dis par ag ing humor com mu ni cated by
a mem ber of the dis par aged group has a more harm ful
effect on the nor ma tive stan dards of appro pri ate con
-
duct than the same dis par ag ing humor com mu ni cated
by a per son who is explic itly iden ti fied as a mem ber of an
outgroup. Thus, sex ist stand-up com edy rou tines deliv -
ered by male come di ans such as Andrew “Dice” Clay may
actu ally have lit tle effect on one’s construal of sex ism in
com par i son to sex ist stand-up rou tines deliv ered by
female come di ans. Ironically though, only outgroup dis
-
par ag ing humor has become defined as socially unac
-
cept able in pub lic domains (Apte, 1987).
Also, by includ ing con di tions in which the gen der of
the joke teller was not revealed, the results of Exper i -
ment 3 sug gest that the effect of sex ist humor on tol er
-
ance of a sex ist event was not lim ited to the sit u a tion in
which sex ist jokes are told by women. Indeed, par tic i
-
pants in the unknown joke teller con di tions reported
that the joke tell ers were more likely to be men than
women. The effects of the sex ist jokes were nul li fied only
when the outgroup sta tus of the joke tell ers was made
salient by the explicit iden ti fi ca tion of them as men. This
find ing sug gests that expo sure to sex ist humor in ways
that are not directly asso ci ated with the gen der of a par -
tic u lar per son (e.g., read ing sex ist comic strips or sex ist
jokes in a book or on the Internet) may affect how peo
-
ple high in hos tile sex ism inter pret or con strue sex ist
events in that con text.
1104 PER SON AL ITY AND SO CIAL PSY CHOL OGY BUL LE TIN
TA BLE 3: Mean Tol er ance Rat ings of the Sex ist Event as a Func tion of Hos tile Sex ism, Hu mor Con tent, and Gen der of the Joke Teller
Gen der of the Joke Teller
Fe male Un known Male
Type of Hu mor Sex ist Neu tral Sex ist Neu tral Sex ist Neu tral
Low hos tile sex ism M 2.88
a
2.92
a
3.12
a
2.88
a
2.97
a
2.74
a
SD 0.83 1.53 1.43 0.96 1.28 1.04
n 14 12 14 14 11 14
High hos tile sex ism M 4.45
b
3.14
a
4.98
b
3.62
a
3.69
a
3.76
a
SD 1.52 1.86 1.72 1.37 1.54 1.29
n 14 14 14 15 13 11
NOTE: Higher scores in di cate greater tol er ance. Ad ja cent means within each gen der of the joke teller con di tion that do not share a com mon sub -
script dif fer at p < .05.
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Finally, con sis tent with pre dic tions from dis po si tion
the ory (Zillmann & Can tor, 1972, 1976) and vicar i ous
supe ri or ity the ory (La Fave, 1972; La Fave et al., 1976),
par tic i pants low in hos tile sex ism across the three exper i
-
ments found the sex ist com mu ni ca tions ( jokes and state-
ments) from the sec ond vignette to be less humor ous
than did par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism. This find ing
sug gests that, in gen eral, par tic i pants low in hos tile sex -
ism were more likely to inter pret the sex ist mate rial in a
crit i cal or seri ous mindset that high lighted its
inap pro pri ate ness.
GEN ERAL DIS CUS SION
The results of the three exper i ments in this arti cle
con trib ute to the grow ing lit er a ture on the effects of dis -
par ag ing humor. Spe cifically, the pres ent research
extends the inves ti ga tion of dis par ag ing humor beyond
its effects on sta ble knowl edge struc tures such as ste reo
-
types and atti tudes toward the dis par aged groups (Olson
et al., 1999). Col lec tively, the results of the three exper i -
ments dem on strated that expo sure to sex ist humor
uniquely expanded the bounds of socially accept able
con duct, cre at ing greater tol er ance of sex dis crim i na
-
tion among peo ple high in hos tile sex ism. The results of
Exper i ments 2 and 3 also sug gest that the acti va tion of a
non crit i cal judg men tal mindset pre sumed to be a nat u
-
ral by-prod uct of humor (e.g., Attardo, 1993; Berlyne,
1972; Kane et al., 1977; McGhee, 1972) was crit i cal for
sex ist humor to increase tol er ance of sex dis crim i na tion.
When the sex ist jokes were inter preted in a seri ous, crit i -
cal man ner, either as a result of explicit instruc tions
(Exper i ment 2) or con tex tual cues such as the group
mem ber ship of the joke teller (Exper i ment 3), the
harm ful effects of sex ist humor were nul li fied among
par tic i pants high in hos tile sex ism.
My expla na tion for these results is that by com mu ni
-
cat ing a deri sive sen ti ment toward women in a man ner
that is not inter preted in a seri ous or crit i cal man ner, sex
-
ist humor cre ates an implicit nor ma tive stan dard of tol -
er ance of sex ism in that imme di ate con text. This more
tol er ant norm essen tially deemphasizes or replaces
broader norms of how one should behave. Fur ther more,
peo ple high in hos tile sex ism are more prone to
respond ing to a sex ist event in accor dance with the nor -
ma tive stan dard implied by the sex ist humor than are
peo ple low in hos tile sex ism. Pre sum ably, peo ple high in
hos tile sex ism have less strongly inter nal ized con vic tions
that are con trary to the stan dard implied by the sex ist
humor. As a result, their construal of a sex ist event is
more likely to be affected by the non crit i cal norm
implied by the sex ist humor.
From the frame work of self-dis crep ancy the ory (Hig -
gins, 1987, 1989), peo ple high in hos tile sex ism may be
more likely to derive their ought-self—sense of obli ga -
tion to respond in a nonsexist man ner—from the stand
-
point of spe cific oth ers or soci ety in gen eral with out truly
incor po rat ing those stan dards into their own set of
impor tant self-reg u la tory guides. As a result, when the
social norms com mu ni cate tol er ance of sex ism, peo ple
high in hos tile sex ism are likely to be more tol er ant of
sex ism. Accord ingly, to pre vent the nor ma tive effect of
sex ist humor, peo ple high in hos tile sex ism appar ently
need exter nal cues (e.g., explicit iden ti fi ca tion of joke
tell ers as men) that essen tially make salient broader
nonsexist norms and thus high light the inap pro pri ate
-
ness of the sex ist humor and its meta-mes sage that sex -
ism need not be taken seri ously. In con trast, peo ple low
in hos tile sex ism are more likely to have truly adopted
nonsexist stan dards as their own. That is, nonsexist stan -
dards are likely to be impor tant self-reg u la tory guides
inde pend ent of the pre vail ing nor ma tive stan dards. As a
result, their construal of a sex ist event is less likely to be
affected by the nor ma tive stan dard implied by sex ist
humor.
Di rec tions for Fu ture Re search
I have sug gested that the effect of sex ist humor on tol
-
er ance of a sex ist event among peo ple high in hos tile sex
-
ism is medi ated by per cep tions of the nor ma tive stan
-
dard implied by the humor. The pres ent research,
how ever, did not exam ine per cep tions of the social
norms—what oth ers in the imme di ate con text would
con sider appro pri ate or inap pro pri ate con duct toward
women. Thus, future research is nec es sary to explic itly
inves ti gate the poten tial medi at ing role of implicit social
norms cre ated by sex ist humor. Dif fer ent lines of
research sug gest that vio la tions of one’s stan dards of
appro pri ate con duct (ought-self) are likely to result in
self-directed neg a tive affect such as dis ap point ment and
shame (e.g., Carver, Law rence, & Scheier, 1999; Devine
et al., 1991; Hig gins, Bond, Klein, & Strauman, 1986). If
in the con text of sex ist humor, then, peo ple high in hos
-
tile sex ism are more tol er ant of sex ism because they
derive their stan dard of con duct from the per ceived
norm implied by the humor, they should expe ri ence less
self-directed neg a tive affect after imag in ing that they
had behaved in a sex ist man ner. In such a con text, behav -
ing in a sex ist man ner would con sti tute less of a vio la tion
of their cur rent stan dards of appro pri ate con duct
toward women.
Another task for future research is to fur ther estab lish
the gen er al ity of the effect of dis par ag ing humor on tol
-
er ance of dis crim i na tion. For instance, con tex tual vari
-
ables other than the gen der of the joke teller might be
expected to mod er ate the effect of sex ist humor on tol er
-
ance of sex ist events. Indeed, there is evi dence that a per
-
son’s reac tions to sex ist humor are influ enced by the
reac tions of oth ers. Young and Frye (1966), for instance,
Ford / SEX IST HU MOR 1105
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found that a con fed er ate’s laugh ter enhanced amuse
-
ment of sex ist humor by fur ther relax ing the social
taboos asso ci ated with the expres sion of sex ist sen ti -
ments. Sim i larly, expres sions of dis ap proval by one per
-
son have been shown to decrease another per son’s enjoy -
ment of humor mate rial (e.g., Chap man & Chap man,
1974; Osborne & Chap man, 1977). It is pos si ble, then,
that by influ enc ing per cep tions of whether sex ist humor
should be con sid ered in a crit i cal ver sus non crit i cal man
-
ner, other peo ple’s reac tions to the humor could mod er -
ate its effects on one’s tol er ance of sex ist events.
Con clu sion
The pres ent research reveals an impor tant find ing
that expo sure to sex ist humor increased approval or tol
-
er ance of an instance of sex dis crim i na tion for peo ple
high in hos tile sex ism. This effect appeared to result
from the dis tinc tive qual ity of humor as a chan nel for
com mu ni cat ing sex ist themes. Humor cues peo ple to
inter pret an under ly ing sex ist mes sage in a nonserious,
non crit i cal man ner, soft en ing their crit i cal sen si tiv i ties
to the expres sion of sex ism more gen er ally. Dis par age
-
ment of social groups through humor, then, is more
than a benign expres sion of prej u dice; it expands the
bounds of socially appro pri ate behav ior, thus cre at ing
social con di tions in which dis crim i na tion can be more
eas ily ratio nal ized as not inap pro pri ate.
NOTES
1. A com plete descrip tion of each vignette can be obtained from
the author.
2. There were no mean ing ful main or inter ac tion effects on the
mood mea sure in any of the three exper i ments pre sented in this arti
-
cle. Thus, no anal y ses on the mood mea sure were reported.
3. There were no mean ing ful main or inter ac tion effects involv ing
benev o lent sex ism on the pri mary depend ent mea sures in any of the
three exper i ments pre sented in this arti cle. Thus, no fur ther anal y ses
includ ing benev o lent sex ism as a between-par tic i pants fac tor are
reported.
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