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Reduced empathic responses for sexually objectified women: An fMRI investigation
Abstract
Sexual objectification is a widespread phenomenon characterized by a focus on the individual's physical appearance over his/her mental state. This has been associated with negative social consequences, as objectified individuals are judged to be less human, competent, and moral. Moreover, behavioral responses toward the person change as a function of the degree of the perceived sexual objectification. In the present study, we investigated how behavioral and neural representations of other social pain are modulated by the degree of sexual objectification of the target. Using a within-subject fMRI design, we found reduced empathic feelings for positive (but not negative) emotions toward sexually objectified women as compared to non-objectified (personalized) women when witnessing their participation to a ball-tossing game. At the brain level, empathy for social exclusion of personalized women recruited areas coding the affective component of pain (i.e., anterior insula and cingulate cortex), the somatosensory components of pain (i.e., posterior insula and secondary somatosensory cortex) together with the mentalizing network (i.e., middle frontal cortex) to a greater extent than for the sexually objectified women. This diminished empathy is discussed in light of the gender-based violence that is afflicting the modern society.
... Recent research studies have demonstrated how, analyzing male and female participants' neural activity (Vaes et al., 2019) or spontaneous categorization processes (Vaes et al., 2020), an objectified woman is perceived and elaborated literally more similar to an object compared to other human targets. Furthermore, less activation of brain areas that are typically involved in mentalizing and are responsible for the encoding of affective and somatosensory components of pain has been found when a sexually objectified female target was ostracized compared to when the same treatment befell a non-objectified woman (Cogoni et al., 2018(Cogoni et al., , 2023. ...
... Indeed, given that objectified women are perceived as more similar to real objects, denied human characteristics and elicit less empathic responses (Cogoni et al., 2018(Cogoni et al., , 2023, the goal of the present research is to verify the negative impact of sexual objectification on people's spontaneous and unconscious mimicry behavior. Since mimicry is fundamental in determining the success of our social interactions (Gueguen et al., 2009) and has been related to various top-down influences and social contexts (Hess & Fischer, 2013;Kastendieck et al., 2021), showing that objectified women who express emotions elicit less spontaneous facial mimicry would strongly suggest that sexual objectification can compromise social interactions. ...
... At the end of the experimental procedure, we assessed both participants' interindividual differences in people's empathic responses 1 and their tendency to dehumanize the objectified and non-objectified female targets. Specifically, we expected both men and women (Cogoni et al., 2018;Heflick et al., 2011;Vaes et al., 2019Vaes et al., , 2020 to respond with less mimicry behavior towards objectified models compared to non-objectified models. The same objectified models were expected to be perceived as having less human characteristics compared to the non-objectified models. ...
Sexual objectification mostly targets women and occurs whenever they are treated as bodies for the use or consumption of others and stripped of their full humanity. While research has mostly focused on sexual harassment and aggression as the main behavioral consequence of sexual objectification, only a few studies have tried to focus on more subtle consequences towards sexually objectified targets. Spontaneous mimicry is an implicit behavior that influences our social interactions in general. It involves the imitation of other people’s postures, gestures and emotions and allows one to understand other’s emotions and intentions. Therefore, impairments in mimicry behavior are bound to have potentially damaging consequences in everyday social interactions for women who fall victim of sexual objectification. In two studies, using electromyography we measured participants’ mimicry behavior towards objectified and non-objectified women who expressed happiness and anger. Results indicated that both male and female participants attributed less mental and human traits and showed less mimicry behavior towards sexually objectified rather than non-objectified women especially when they expressed happiness. Given the fundamental role of mimicry in creating successful everyday interpersonal interactions, the results of this research advance our understanding on the more subtle, but daily consequences of sexual objectification.
... Facial expressions represent a meeting point between affective and social dynamics, they have been employed as stimuli in numerous and connected research fields dealing with cognitive, social, and emotional processes, as well as emotional disorders and psychopathology. Interestingly, these same scientific fields have been studied within the realm of sexual objectification, that is, cognitive objectification (Andrighetto et al., 2019;Bernard et al., 2018;Vaes et al., 2019), the socialization and competition between women (Vaillancourt & Sharma, 2011), emotional mechanisms (e.g., empathy, Cogoni et al., 2018) and the negative psychological consequences of self-objectification related to emotional disorders and psychopathology (e.g., depression, social anxiety, eating disorders, Jones & Griffiths, 2015;Fredrickson et al., 1998). Taken together, it is evident how sexual objectification is a widespread phenomenon that can be linked to many other research areas: from its clinical ramifications, its links with mind and face perception studies, the analysis of its underlying cognitive mechanisms, to the area of emotion perception and recognition. ...
... Previous research has shown how both the targets' posture and revealing clothing can independently change the extent to which they are objectified (Bernard et al., 2019;Murnen et al., 2003;Vaes et al., 2011Vaes et al., , 2019. However, much of the scientific evidence on sexual objectification and its link with other factors, such as the denials of humanity, comes from studies where female targets presented in bikini or underwear are perceived as less human and are more objectified than fully dressed female targets (Cogoni et al., 2018;Heflick et al., 2011;Loughnan et al., 2010;Vaes et al., 2011). Since our first aim was to manipulate both objectification and emotions, we opted to manipulate the clothing of each model keeping their aspect (absence of any make-up) and posture as neutral as possible. ...
... For this reason, we expected the scarcely dressed female targets to be objectified significantly more than the fully dressed targets. The literature on sexual objectification has consistently shown that sexualized women are objectified by both heterosexual men and women (Cogoni et al., 2018;Heflick et al., 2011;Vaes et al., 2019Vaes et al., , 2020. For this reason, we expected female and male participants to evaluate objectified and non-objectified models in a similar way. ...
Sexual objectification – perceiving or treating a woman as a sexual object – is a widespread phenomenon. Studies on sexual objectification and its consequences have grown dramatically over the last decades covering multiple and diverse areas of research. However, research studying sexual objectification might have limited internal and external validity due to the lack of a controlled and standardized picture database. Moreover, there is a need to extend this research to other fields including the study of emotions. Therefore, in this paper we introduce the SOBEM Database, a free tool consisting of 280 high-resolution pictures depicting objectified and non-objectified female models expressing a neutral face and three different emotions (happiness, anger, and sadness) with different intensity. We report the validation of this dataset by analyzing results of 134 participants judging pictures on the six basic emotions and on a range of social judgments related to sexual objectification. Results showed how the SOBEM can constitute an appropriate instrument to study both sexual objectification per se and its relation with emotions. This database could therefore become an important instrument able to improve the experimental control in future studies on sexual objectification and to create new links with different fields of research.
... Empathy, the ability to share and understand the feelings of another person, can be a moderator of objectification given that objectification is a relational phenomenon (LaCroix & Pratto, 2015). Cogoni et al. (2018) found reduced empathy toward sexually objectified women, but there is a lack of research on other domains, such as the workplace. Suppressing empathy has been linked to dehumanization in organizational settings ("organizational dehumanization"; Christoff, 2014). ...
... Finally, we explored the role of individual differences in moderating other-objectification. Despite studies exploring empathic behavioral responses to objectified targets (Cogoni et al., 2018), no empirical data are available on the objectification of others in the workplace. Similarly, we explored the moderating role of individual differences in SDO given its negative association with empathy (Pratto et al., 1994). ...
We investigated whether organizational change and organizational power are antecedents of working self- and other-objectification by focusing on two facets: fungibility and instrumentality. In Study 1 (N = 118), office workers who had experienced an operational review, compared to no exposure, were found to have significantly higher perceptions of being objectified as instrumental by their organization. Further, less powerful employees had significantly higher perceptions of being objectified as fungible, that is, as interchangeable, versus managers and heads of departments. Workers’ perception of being objectified as fungible, but not instrumental, predicted tendencies to self-objectify. Furthermore, this relationship was mediated by professional efficacy. In Study 2 (N = 160), we examined other-objectification. The results showed that instrumentality, rather than fungibility, primarily contributed to the objectification of a fictitious worker. These studies highlight the importance of taking a theoretical and methodological multidimensional approach to the study of workplace self-objectification and other-objectification.
... Objectified people are also denied moral status; the ability to understand or commit good or bad actions. Neuroimaging studies have also shown that sexualized women are compared to literal objects (Vaes et al., 2020) and activate fewer brain regions associated with positive and empathetic reactions than nonsexualized women (Cogoni et al., 2018). Men express sexual attraction toward sexually objectified women (Vaes et al., 2011) and are more willing to behave sexually aggressively toward them (Bevens & Loughnan, 2019). ...
... Men express sexual attraction toward sexually objectified women (Vaes et al., 2011) and are more willing to behave sexually aggressively toward them (Bevens & Loughnan, 2019). Furthermore, sexualized women elicit less concern and empathy when victimized (Cogoni et al., 2018) and are perceived as more responsible for being raped (Loughnan et al., 2013), while their rapists are blamed less (Bernard et al., 2015). Women also treat sexually objectified women negatively, "as if they are out-group members" (Vaes et al., 2011, p. 780). ...
If nipple erection signals/is a cue to sexual interest or arousal, we would expect that women with nipple erection would be sexualized: having a presumed higher sexual arousal and promiscuity and lower mental abilities and morality. To examine this, 234 participants rated pictures of women with and without salient nipple erection (faces were obscured to eliminate facial cues). Participants completed a hypothetical sexual behavior profile (30 items including perceptions of morality and intelligence) for each stimulus photo. Both men and women perceived women with nipple erection as less intelligent, less moral, and more likely to engage in sexual behaviors. These are the primary markers of sexual objectification. They also rated these women as having poorer sexual health and being less sexually manipulative. Men perceived all the women in the stimulus photos as being less moral and having more male sexual partners, indicating that men objectified the stimuli overall more than women. Women reported that women with erect nipples had more male sex partners, lost their virginity at a younger age, and had lower quality relationships. In summary, female nipple erection, which is an uncontrollable reflex, triggers sexualization and objectification by both men and women who observe it.
... right visual cortex, bilateral fusiform/lingual gyrus, left inferior occipital and angular gyrus). Accordingly, especially the left angular gyrus and TJP have previously been associated with emotional as well as empathic processing (Costa et al. 2014;Fehr et al. 2014;Kogler et al. 2020), specifically for perspective-taking (Pedersen et al. 2012;Petrini et al. 2014;Cogoni et al. 2018). Moreover, the visual areas such as the fusiform and lingual gyri as well as the calcarine cortex observed in this study were also previously implicated in empathy-related processes (e.g. ...
... Moreover, the visual areas such as the fusiform and lingual gyri as well as the calcarine cortex observed in this study were also previously implicated in empathy-related processes (e.g. Akitsuki and Decety 2009;Lombardo et al. 2010;de Greck et al. 2012;Paulus et al. 2015;Cogoni et al. 2018;Qiao-Tasserit et al. 2018) and socio-emotional attentional processing (e.g. Fehr et al. 2014;Engen and Singer 2015;Hsu et al. 2015). ...
Evidence accumulates that oral contraceptive (OC) use modulates various socio-affective behaviors, including empathic abilities. Endogenous and synthetic sex hormones, such as estrogens and progestogens, bind to receptor sites in brain regions (i.e. frontal, limbic, and cerebellar) involved in socio-affective processing. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of OC use in empathy. In a cross-sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging study, women in different hormonal states, including OC use (n = 46) or being naturally cycling in the early follicular (fNC: n = 37) or peri-ovulatory phase (oNC: n = 28), performed a visual, sentence-based empathy task. Behaviorally, OC users had lower empathy ratings than oNC women. Congruently, whole-brain analysis revealed significantly larger task-related activation of several brain regions, including the left dorsomedial prefrontal gyrus (dmPFG), left precentral gyrus, and left temporoparietal junction in oNC compared to OC women. In OC users, the activity of the left dmPFG and precentral gyrus was negatively associated with behavioral and self-reported affective empathy. Furthermore, empathy-related region-of-interest analysis indicated negative associations of brain activation with synthetic hormone levels in OC women. Overall, this multimodal, cross-sectional investigation of empathy suggests a role of OC intake in especially affective empathy and highlights the importance of including synthetic hormone levels in OC-related analyses.
... Штавише, може се рећи да су визуелни садржаји практично окосница негативног стереотипног медијског портретисања припадника различитих рањивих група, а нарочито жена (као сексуално објективизованих), Рома (као просјака, преступника, хигијенски запуштених итд.) и особа са менталним поремећајима (као разуларених, крвожедних и непредвидивих), што за последицу може имати, како показују новије емпиријске студије, не само омаловажавање и оснаживање стереотипа и предрасуда, већ и редукцију емпатије публике према појединцима из ових група који се налазе у стању какве социјалне потребе (в. Cogoni, Carnaghi, Silani, 2018;Maučec, 2013). ...
... Проблем је знатно сложенији јер медији, као средство масовног информисања али и "интерпретирања" појава и догађаја, могу да продубе стереотипне ставове о женама и допринесу родној дискриминацији и насиљу према женама (Konstantinović-Vilić, Žunić, 2012: 225). Постоје уверљиви емпиријски налази који казују да сексуална објективизација доводи до опадања интерперсоналне сензитивности код публике: сексуално објективизоване жене по правилу се опажају као неморалније и некомпетентније у односу на персонализоване жене, док емпатија према жени у стању какве социјалне патње опада (на неуронском и на бихевиоралном нивоу) ако је њен приказ сексуализован (Cogoni, Carnaghi, Silani, 2018). Тако сексуализовани приказ жртава сексуалног насиља директно снижава емпатију посматрача и доводи до тога да жртве чешће бивају опажене као "одговорне" за виктимизацију, а да учиниоци то бивају ређе (Bernard et al., 2015, према Cogoni, Carnaghi, Silani, 2018Holland, Haslam, 2015;Loughnan et al., 2013). ...
The paper discusses the contemporary features of stereotypes in media content, with special emphasis on practice and the consequences of stereotyping vulnerable social groups. Particular attention is paid to reviewing the prevalence and modalities of gender, racial, and ethnic stereotypes in Serbian mass media, as well as the consequences of social stereotyping affecting women, minority ethnic groups, people with mental disorders, and members of other vulnerable social groups, including their increased exposure to social marginalization, discrimination, violence, and secondary victimization. The content analysis of electronic editions of three dailies in Serbia of different newspaper format and editorial approach (Politika, Blic, and Kurir), published within the period from January 10 to February 7, 2021, was conducted to gain a closer insight into current representation, forms and other features of media stereotyping of various vulnerable social groups. The obtained findings confirm the initial assumption that stereotypes, especially gender, as well as those directed at minority ethnic groups, are expressed and routinely represented in electronic media content available to the general public, in which these groupsare continuously presented in a very narrow repertoire of social roles, primarily by tabloid dailies Additional content analysis of electronic editions of dailies in Serbia over the past five years features stereotypical portrayal of Roma, and persons with mental health disorders as categories of citizens who are predominantly represented in negative content in the media, with the absence of analytical texts and content dealing with the social background of the circumstances in which they find themselves. Furthermore, no attention is paid to their social needs, which contributes to the strengthening of stereotypes, intolerance, insensitivity, or irrational fear of members of certain vulnerable social groups. In conclusion, the importance of the role of today's mass media in maintaining, but also in deconstructing negative social stereotypes, that is, humanization of modern cultural and social space and denormalization of violence directed at vulnerable groups based on prejudice,isemphasized.
... It is worth noting that in the study we briefly described Cogoni et al. (2018aCogoni et al. ( , 2018b have also shown that reduced empathy toward sexually objectified women at the neural level was not related with individuals' personal levels of dispositional empathy, hostile or benevolent sexism, or social dominance attitudes. Instead, it was associated with dehumanization. ...
... Further, the Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework postulates interconnections among the three cognitive, affective, and normative mechanisms that research has not yet openly addressed. For example, a path between dehumanization and disruption of empathic resonance (Cogoni et al. 2018a(Cogoni et al. , 2018bHolland and Haslam 2016) should help to better explain relations between sexually objectifying media and both engagement in harassing behavior and bystander intervention. Therefore, we strongly encourage future work to address all these important issues. ...
Media that sexually objectify women by portraying them in ways that emphasize physical beauty and sexual readiness as well as reduce them to decorative and sexual objects have been traditionally identified by scholars as a powerful cultural risk factor encouraging sexual harassment and sexual violence. In the present article we review the existing empirical evidence linking sexually objectifying media and sexual harassment of women to the overarching and integrative Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework. This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the effects of sexually objectifying media on three target groups directly involved in sexual harassment-perpetrators, victims, and bystanders-and it postulates three cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which sexually objectifying media lead to sexual harassment: dehumanization, disruption of emphatic resonance, and a shift in gender norms. The evidence reviewed on the basis of the Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework shows that sexually objectifying media converge in normalizing harassing behaviors and can be a causal risk factor for increasing engagement in sexual harassment, heightening victims' acceptance of sexual harassment and discouraging bystander intervention. We discuss implications of these arguments for effectively preventing negative effects of exposure to sexually objectifying media and for education programs aimed at critical media-consumption.
... Women who are objectified are viewed as less than fully human, perceived to have less of a mind for thoughts or decisions and viewed as less deserving of moral treatment by others [8]. This denial of mental capacity and moral status has been found to have negative repercussions for objectified women, including increasing men's willingness to commit sexually aggressive actions towards them [9], and decreasing perceived suffering in cases of sexual assault [10][11][12]. Furthermore, some women are objectified more than others: Women who appear sexualized (e.g., more tightly-fitted, revealing or provocative clothing, greater application of cosmetics), in particular, are objectified more than non-sexualized women [3,[13][14][15]. ...
... Focusing on a woman's body promotes objectification and decreases perceptions of her mental capacity and moral status [8,10,26]. This relationship between body focus and objectification has been demonstrated through multiple lines of research including cognitive [27,28], visual processing (e.g., inversion effects) [12,29,30] and dehumanization research [31]. However, men and women do not objectify women equally, and may not do so for the same reasons [31] or even in the same way [32]. ...
Previous research finds that both men and women perceive sexualized women as lacking in certain human qualities such as mental capacity and moral status. The mechanism underlying this effect, however, is unclear. The present two studies test how appearance-based judgements affect the degree to which a broad sample of women are objectified. In Study 1 (N = 279), full-body images of women wearing different clothing outfits were rated by male and female participants on perceived attractiveness, sexual intent and age. In Study 2, male and female participants (N = 1,695) viewed these same images from Study 1 and rated them on two dimensions of objectification (agency and patiency). We analyzed associations between these dimensions of objectification and the averaged appearance-based perceptions from Study 1. We find that women perceived as more open to casual sex are attributed less mental capacity and less moral status. We also find that participants tend to associate attractiveness with greater mental and moral status in women, but we find only limited evidence that perceived age influences objectification. Our findings suggest that although positive attractiveness biases may mitigate the amount a woman is objectified, greater female objectification may be prompted by observers’ negative stereotypes of promiscuous women.
... This scale, which ranges from 1 (indicating 'completely absent') to 5 (indicating 'completely present') on a five-point rating system, encompasses dimensions such as Belonging, Self-Esteem, Control, and Meaningful Existence. Each of these dimensions comprises five items (Williams, 2009;Cogoni et al., 2018;Ren et al., 2018). Additionally, a questionnaire on empathy was administered to measure observers' empathy levels toward the targets. ...
Social exclusion stands as a source of social discord and holds substantial research value. Prior investigations on social exclusion have overlooked the interactive relationship between the excluded individuals and the observers. Hence, this study comparatively explores the neural mechanisms underlying the psychological responses of two distinct roles within the same social exclusion context. A total of 35 pairs (19 pairs of females) participated in the experiment. Within each pair, one individual assumed the role of a socially excluded participant (target), while the other acted as a social exclusion observer. Targets engaged in an online ball-passing game where controlled ball allocations to the participants created an exclusion scenario. Meanwhile, observers spectated the targets playing the game. Throughout the ball-passing activity, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recorded the blood oxygen data in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) of both participants. Our findings revealed varied levels of rejection sensitivity elicited by direct or observed social exclusion experiences. Additionally, distinct patterns of neural activation were observed: targets displayed conditional differences in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), while male observers exhibited conditional activation differences in the mPFC, and female observers showed conditional activation differences in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). This study juxtaposes the behavioral and neural activation variances between targets and observers within the same social context, offering a novel perspective on investigating the neural mechanisms of social exclusion.
... This finding could be predicted by both sexual objectification and general aggression theories, but such image exposure paradigms are not readily administered, likely due to ethical concerns. More recently, Cogoni et al. (2018) found that participants exhibited lower self-reported positive emotional and neural responses in areas of the brain involved in empathy when rating the emotion of sexually objectified woman compared with a non-objectified woman. While these reaction time and neuroimaging studies have provided some insight into affective responses when processing sexually objectifying material, skin conductance (sweat activity) is another potentially useful method for understanding men's affective responses towards women. ...
Deliberate and effortful attempts to gaze at the bodies of women is emerging as a valuable marker of sexual objectification in men. Some preliminary evidence suggests that pervasive body gaze behavior may also accompany insidious attitudes which can facilitate sexual assault. The present study aimed to further explore this potential by examining pervasive body gaze associations with explicit, implicit, and physiological sexual assault propensity measures. We presented 110 heterosexual male participants with images of fully and partially dressed women with and without injuries while measuring their skin conductance responses. We also captured implicit and explicit sexual assault measures in addition to self-reported pervasive body gaze behavior. Pervasive body gaze behavior was significantly correlated with rape myth acceptance attitudes, prior perpetration of sexual assault, a stronger implicit association between erotica and aggression, and lower physiological reactivity during exposure to partially dressed injured women. These findings suggest that body gaze towards women could be a behavioral marker for inclinations to victim blame, preferences for rough sexual conduct, and a physiological desensitization towards female victims. This study further validates a five item self-reported body gaze measure as a valuable tool for detecting deviant sexual objectification attitudes and affective states. As such, measurement and observation of body gaze behavior could be useful for developing risk assessments, estimating intervention efficacy, and enhancing public awareness.
... The brain activity in the self-referential network may indicate a tr ansition fr om self-objectification to eating disorders. Pr e vious neur oima ging r esearc h has demonstr ated the r ole of the selfr efer ential network in self-objectification (Cikara et al., 2011 ;Cogoni et al., 2018 ;Du et al., 2023 ), self-rumination (Int-Veen et al., 2023 ;Laicher et al., 2022 ;Rosenbaum et al., 2021 ), and eating disorders (Brooks et al., 2011 ;Martins et al., 2020 ;Spangler et al., 2012 ). Specifically, individuals with higher levels of self-objectification show decr eased br ain activity in the self-r efer ential network, including the medial frontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex, superior temporal cortex, and cingulate gyrus (Sun et al., 2016 ). ...
Self-objectification, characterized by treating oneself primarily as a physical entity (A body) or a collection of body parts, has been linked to the development of eating disorders. Yet, the precise mechanisms underpinning this link have remained elusive. From a psychopathological perspective, this article proposes that both self-objectification and eating disorders can be seen as manifestations of self-rumination (repetitive, negative self-focus). While self-objectification involves psychological rumination, eating disorders encompass a complex interplay of psychological and physical (bodily) rumination. In addition, at the neural level, the underlying neural foundations underlying such self-rumination are likely rooted in brain activity and connectivity within networks associated with self-reference, cognitive control, and body perception. Collectively, these perspectives shed light on the psychopathological and neural processes that links self-objectification to the onset of eating disorders.
... Consistent with this proposition, Cogoni et al. (2018) found that participants reported less explicit empathy and displayed reduced neural activity in brain areas associated with empathy toward a sexualized, compared to a nonsexualized, suffering woman. More explicitly, Pacilli et al. (2017) demonstrated that a sexualized woman was perceived as feeling less physical and emotional pain in a domestic abuse scenario compared to a non-sexualized woman, which further predicted reduced helping. ...
Women constitute an overwhelming majority of those who experience domestic violence; furthermore, the vast majority of perpetrators of domestic violence go unsentenced. The objectification of women innately implies the denial of humanness, and dehumanization is known to play a role in willingness to engage in and acceptance of interpersonal harm. Yet, important questions remain. The current study examines the type of humanness objectified women are being denied, and how that denial implicates perceptions surrounding domestic assault. We predict that associating women with objects, and not animals, may be uniquely implicated in the lack of consequences for perpetrators—for objects cannot feel pain. In the current study ( N = 319), we manipulated the presentation of a woman as sexualized or not and purported that she had been involved in a domestic violence incident. We found that when the target woman was sexualized (and thus objectified), participants associated her with an inert, non-human object (i.e., mechanistically dehumanized her) more than when she was not sexually objectified, but we found no effect of sexualization on animalistic dehumanization. Furthermore, mechanistic dehumanization mediated decreases in perceptions of the sexually objectified woman’s suffering as a result of the domestic violence, which decreased the severity of the punishment participants recommended for the perpetrator, while also, increasing victim, and decreasing perpetrator, blame. We discuss critical considerations of the role of dehumanization in domestic violence directed toward women and the lack of consequences for perpetrators of these crimes.
... Obecny stan wiedzy wykazuje również, że mężczyźni konsumujący pornografię internetową mieli zmniejszone odczuwanie empatii wobec kobiet, które padły ofiarą przemocy seksualnej [30]. Ponadto oglądanie pornografii internetowej i granie w gry wideo o charakterze seksualnym niesie ze sobą negatywne skutki w postaci skłonności do gwałtów, postaw wspierających gwałt i ogólnie przemocy [9]. ...
Celem pracy było przedstawienie psychologicznych skutków oglądania pornografii przez adolescentów.
Została przedstawiona dyskusja na temat definicji pornografii, przytoczono, czym jest termin zdrowie psychiczne
oraz adolescencja. Skupiono się na skutkach, jakie niesie oglądanie pornografii przez młodych ludzi. Omówiono w sposób szczegółowy wpływ pornografii na wzmacnianie stereotypów płciowych, uprzedmiotowienie
kobiet, porównywanie się pod względem wyglądu fizycznego. Zwrócono uwagę na tworzenie się fałszywych
skryptów seksualnych oraz normalizację przemocy seksualnej.
ENG
The aim of this paper was to present the psychological effects of pornography viewing by adolescents.
A discussion on the definition of pornography was presented, what the terms mental health and adolescence
are were cited. The focus was on the effects of adolescent viewing of pornography. The effects of pornography on reinforcing gender stereotypes, objectification of women, comparison in terms of physical appearance
were discussed in detail. Attention was given to the formation of false sexual scripts and the normalisation
of sexual violence.
... 40 In line with this, women with makeup are more likely to experience objectification than women who do not use makeup due to the presence of association of makeup use with sex. 33,38,39,[41][42][43] Research shows that objectified women are dehumanized. 33 However, studies show that women can feel confident when they are made sexual objects to the extent that their romantic partners do. ...
Laser procedures for skin care is becoming increasingly popular and used by the global community and affect many aspects of human life. However, there is very little research on the role of men in women’s decision to follow this dermatological procedure. This study aimed to identify the role of men in motivating women to choose laser-based procedure. A systematic literature review research design was applied in this study. A total of 27 papers were obtained by searching PubMed Central for the 2013–2022 editions. The extraction of samples and the motivation of patients or research respondents in choosing laser procedures for cosmetic treatments were conducted to obtain clues about the role of men in making these decisions. Only six studies explicitly reveal the role of men as motivators of women to perform laser-based dermatological procedures. Four of these six studies were conducted in Asia in countries with a high degree of collectivism. The remaining two studies reveal a minor role for men in women’s motivation to choose dermatological procedures. Other studies only indirectly implicate the role of men through intrasexual competition, increased self-esteem, and the needs of the world of work. Limitations of the study lies in the non-specificity of the study sample in the female population, laser-based treatments, and the role of men in motivating women. The role of men in motivating women to perform laser-based skin care procedures is stated explicitly in collectivist cultures while only implicitly in individualist cultures. These findings indicate that the strategy of utilizing the added value of men to laser treatment procedures should be directed at the relationship between men and women in real terms in collective cultured countries.
... This line of research showed that sexualized (vs. non-sexualized) women victims of violence are considered as less pain sensitive (rape crime in Loughnan et al., 2013; intimate partner violence in Pacilli et al., 2017), and elicited a reduced empathic reaction at a neural level (social exclusion in Cogoni et al., 2018). Further, and most importantly for our purpose, perceivers attribute more blame and express less willingness to help sexualized mistreated individuals as compared to non-sexualized ones (sexual harassment in Gramazio et al., 2021;Loughnan et al., 2013;Pacilli et al., 2017; bullying episode in street harassment in Spaccatini et al., 2019). ...
This article examines the influence of the sexualization of victims’ appearance on bystanders’ helping intentions when witnessing an online harassment episode, considering the mediation of victim blaming. Two hundred and ninety participants read a fictitious Facebook post of the victim describing the online harassment episode. According to the experimental condition, the scenario was accompanied by a picture of the female (vs. male) victim with a sexualized (vs. non-sexualized) appearance. Then, participants rated the seriousness of the episode, the extent to which they blamed the victim for the online harassment, and expressed their willingness to help the victim. Results showed that sexualized victims, regardless of their gender, were blamed more for their victimization, and this evaluation, in turn, lowered participants’ willingness to help the victims. In conclusion, linking the literature on the antecedents and the consequences of victim blaming, we extended the knowledge providing evidence that the biased perception of victims’ physical appearance produces concrete consequences for mistreated individuals. Practical implications are discussed.
... Oxytocin increases social salience and, in low-risk contexts, such increases may lead to affiliation, engagement, and bonding (Feldman, 2016). Further, reduced empathic responses behaviorally and neurally have been associated with viewing of sexually objectified women (Cogoni, Carnaghi, & Silani, 2018), and pornography has been linked to sexual objectification of women (Seabrook, Ward, & Giaccardi, 2019). Hence, taken together, it is plausible that diminished empathy may mediate effects of low levels of oxytocin on increased severity of PPU. ...
Background:
Addictive behaviors share clinical, genetic, neurobiological and phenomenological parallels with substance addictions. Despite the prevalence of compulsive sexual behaviors, particularly problematic pornography use (PPU), how neuroendocrine systems relate to PPU is not well understood. Preclinical studies demonstrate alterations in oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) function in animal models of addiction, but no human study has tested their involvement in PPU.
Method:
Participants included 122 males; 69 reported PPU, and 53 were demographically-matched participants without PPU. Plasma oxytocin and AVP levels and oxytocin-to-AVP balance were measured at baseline. Salivary oxytocin was assessed at baseline and in response to four videos depicting neutral/positive social encounters. Participants reported on empathy and psychiatric symptoms.
Results:
Baseline plasma AVP levels were elevated in men with PPU, and the ratio of oxytocin-to-vasopressin suggested AVP dominance. Men with PPU reacted with greater oxytocin increases to presentation of neutral/positive social stimuli. Decreased empathic tendencies were found in men with PPU, and this reduced empathy mediated links between oxytocin and pornography-related hypersexuality. Structural equation modeling revealed three independent paths to pornography-related hypersexuality; two direct paths via increased AVP and higher psychiatric symptoms and one indirect path from oxytocin to pornography-related hypersexuality mediated by diminished empathy.
Conclusions:
Findings are among the first to implicate neuropeptides sustaining mammalian attachment in the pathophysiology of pornography-related hypersexuality and describe a neurobiological mechanism by which oxytocin-AVP systems and psychiatric symptomatology may operate to reduce empathy and lead to pornography-related hypersexuality.
... Of note, a small body of literature exploring implicit self-objectification also exists (see Dryden & Anderson, 2019;Morris et al., 2014). A burgeoning body of literature has also used eye-tracking technology to successfully map the objectifying gaze (e.g., Anderson, Holland, Heldreth, & Johnson, 2018;Gervais et al., 2013) and neuroimaging technology to explore differing neurallevel responses to sexualized and non-sexualized stimuli (e.g., Cogoni et al., 2018). However, the interpretation of these newer measures of objectification is more controversial, and the evidence for their validity is still being established. ...
Objectification theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding how socialization and experiences of objectification can lead women to place excessive value on their appearance—a process known as self-objectification. Despite the number of women that are mothers, the application of objectification theory to motherhood has been relatively limited. This review synthesizes the available research exploring objectification during motherhood. We conducted a systematic search for published and unpublished articles that quantitatively examined the objectification of, or self-objectification during, motherhood across five databases in March 2019. The search yielded 23 studies across 20 articles, which in combination revealed strong evidence of societal objectification of mothers and self-objectification by mothers. Effects were found for pregnant and postpartum women, in both community and university samples of mothers. Outcomes included more body shame, concerns about the negative impact of breastfeeding, barriers to breastfeeding, fear of childbirth, disordered eating, and greater appearance concerns in mothers, and sexualized behaviors and body surveillance for their children. Some evidence indicated that self-objectifying may be protective for mothers in certain situations, but it was mostly associated with harmful consequences. Finally, some evidence suggested that there may be age and generational effects of objectification, which may impact all women, including mothers. We hope these findings highlight the benefits for women to engage in healthy relationships with their bodies and to consider the functionality of their body as it changes in preparation for entering motherhood.
... Objectification of women in online media impacts individuals' feelings of empathy and sexual behaviors (Barket, Shnabel, Abeles, Gervais, & Yuval-Greenberg, 2018;Durán, Megías, & Moya, 2018;Fox & Potocki, 2016;Gabbiadini et al., 2016;Palermo et al., 2019). In a study examining neural representations and behaviors, Cogoni, Carnaghi, and Silani (2018) found reduced empathy for women who were subjected to gender-based violence. Research also found a positive association between objectifying media and sexual violence (Durán et al., 2018;Galdi, Maass, & Cadinu, 2014). ...
Online video games are played by billions of people all over the world. A new science, ludology has recently emerged in response to the ever-increasing popularity of online video games. Similarly, the amount of online pornography is amassing rapidly. Not only is it easily accessible, but often available for free with new sites being created daily. This article provides a brief overview of current understandings of reported harms to inform researchers, professionals and interested community members about the need for awareness, education and early intervention, particularly for adolescents and young adults. Whether focus of attention is on online pornography or sexually explicit video games, the influence on consumers’ desires, attitudes, values and behaviors cannot be neglected. An increased understanding of potentially harmful effects as indicated by recent research may result in sexual violence prevention education that includes online pornography and sexually explicit video games.
... Our set of studies indicated that perceived partner dehumanization in women or perpetrated partner objectification in men is the antecedent of relationship dissatisfaction. Not only is empathy negatively associated with sexual objectification (Cogoni et al. 2018), but also perceived empathy is positively associated with relationship satisfaction (Cramer and Jowett 2010). Thus, the enhancement of empathy toward the female partner, which means focusing on her emotional and subjective states (inconsistent with objectification), might be a valuable strategy to increase relationship satisfaction in both members of the couple. ...
Sexual objectification is one of most the common manifestations of discrimination against women in Western societies; however, few studies have examined objectification in the context of romantic relationships. The primary aim of the present research was to bring the study of objectification phenomena into the setting of heterosexual romantic relationships. The present set of studies examined the relation between sexual objectification and relationship satisfaction for both the sexual objectification recipient (Study 1) and the sexual objectification perpetrator (Study 2). The results of the first study with 206 U.S. undergraduate female students in committed romantic relationships replicated a previously identified negative association between feeling dehumanized by one’s partner and intimate relationship satisfaction. Moreover, this link was mediated by greater body dissatisfaction and decreased sexual satisfaction. The second study with 94 U.S. undergraduate male students in committed romantic relationships demonstrated a negative association between sexual objectification perpetration and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, this negative relation was mediated by greater partner objectification and lower sexual satisfaction. Results of both studies demonstrated the effect of sexual objectification (as recipient or perpetrator) on global intimate relationship health. Additionally, the results highlight poor sexual satisfaction as a key dyadic mechanism linking objectification processes to intimate relationship outcomes.
... Objectification of women in online media impacts individuals' feelings of empathy and sexual behaviors (Barket, Shnabel, Abeles, Gervais, & Yuval-Greenberg, 2018;Durán, Megías, & Moya, 2018;Fox & Potocki, 2016;Gabbiadini et al., 2016;Palermo et al., 2019). In a study examining neural representations and behaviors, Cogoni, Carnaghi, and Silani (2018) found reduced empathy for women who were subjected to gender-based violence. Research also found a positive association between objectifying media and sexual violence (Durán et al., 2018;Galdi, Maass, & Cadinu, 2014). ...
This book examines issues around violence against women in relation to contemporary experiences, theories and interventions. It provides insight from research and expertise of international scholars, which invites readers to critically reflect on the nature, impacts and complex responses to women’s experiences of interpersonal violence, inequality and racism. The book raises awareness of different forms of violence, which include emerging types such as image-based abuse, sextortion and online stalking. The book is aimed at scholars, students, practitioners, policy makers and interested community members. A primary emphasis is on resituating major issues in the context of contemporary challenges and current research. Violence against women is an ongoing phenomenon that continues to confront and impact individuals, sub-populations and whole societies. Major misconceptions in the context of family and intimate relationships are highlighted along with prejudicial attitudes of those responding to the violence. Furthermore, cultural expectations and media representations are implicated and reasons for ongoing and new digital technology facilitated abuse are discussed. This book makes it abundantly clear that awareness needs to be raised continuously, along with discussions in relation to effective intervention and prevention. While progress has been made in recent years and decades, contemporary concerns need to be raised, challenges need to be considered to press forward, tolerance towards violence against women needs to be reduced and ultimately prevented altogether. (Nova)
... Gazing at women's bodies comes at the expense of directing visual attention to their faces-yet the latter is critical for accurate person perception (Berry 1991) and effective face-to-face communication (Knapp et al. 2013). For example, gazing at one's interaction partner's eyes plays a role in facilitating interpersonal empathy (Dadds et al. 2008), which may explain why exposure to sexually objectified women reduced empathic responses for female targets (Cogoni et al. 2018). It is, therefore, likely that gazing at women's bodies leads to the endorsement of sexually objectifying attitudes. ...
Despite growing scientific interest in the sexually objectifying male gaze, the relation between men’s gazing behavior and their sexually objectifying attitudes has not yet been examined. The present study addressed this gap in the literature. Sixty-one heterosexual Israeli men viewed photographs of female targets while their spontaneous eye movements were monitored to detect the amount of time they spent looking at the target’s sexual body parts versus face. They also completed a self-report measure of Men’s Objectification of Women. Consistent with feminist theorizing about the objectifying gaze, we found moderate associations between men’s gaze behavior and endorsement of sexually objectifying attitudes. These findings establish the construct validity of the measure of the objectifying gaze as the time spent staring at women’s bodies versus faces, which has been commonly used in previous research based on its face validity—yet without empirically testing whether it measures the theoretical construct of interest. Our findings contribute to the literature about the relations between attitudes and behaviors by shedding light on the association between explicit, self-reported versus more subtle, behavioral manifestations of men’s sexual objectification of women. Practically, they suggest that interventions to reduce sexual objectification should target both explicit attitudes and gaze behavior.
... This lack of conformity was further explored in some cortex imaging studies. Recent studies used fMRI to record brain activation in subjects who developed empathy and found that when the individual developed empathy for the pain of others, the cortex activation was highly consistent with when the individual felt his/her own pain (Jackson et al., 2006b;Bernhardt and Singer, 2012;Grice-Jackson et al., 2017;Cogoni et al., 2018). Hence, it was further inferred that individuals who develop empathy from the suffering of others also experience a corresponding pain and discomfort (Lamm et al., 2007). ...
Empathy is a mental ability that allows one person to understand the mental and emotional state of another and determines how to effectively respond to that person. When a person receives cues that another person is in pain, neural pain circuits within the brain are activated. Studies have shown that compared with non-medical staff, medical practitioners present lower empathy for pain in medical scenarios, but the mechanism of this phenomenon remains in dispute. This work investigates whether the neural correlates of empathic processes of pain are altered by professional medical knowledge. The participants were 16 medical students who were enrolled at a Chinese medical college and 16 non-medical students who were enrolled at a normal university. Participants were scanned by functional near-infrared spectroscopy while watching pictures of medical scenarios that were either painful or neutral situations. Subjects were asked to evaluate the pain intensity supposedly felt by the model in the stimulus displays, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C (IRI-C) questionnaire was used to measure the empathic ability of participants. The results showed that there is no significant difference between medical professional and non-medical professional subjects in IRI-C questionnaire scores. The subjects of medical professions rated the pain degree of medical pictures significantly lower than those of non-medical professions. The activation areas in non-medical subjects were mainly located in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal polar regions, posterior part of the inferior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, supplementary somatosensory cortex and angular gyrus, whereas there was a wide range of activation in the prefrontal lobe region in addition to the somatosensory cortex in medical professionals. These results indicate that the process of pain empathy in medical settings is influenced by medical professional knowledge.
... It has been observed that when a person (especially women) has been sexually objectified (sexualized from now on), she is likely to be perceived as deprived of her mind, moral status [5] and agency [6], which are core characteristics that distinguish humans from animals and nonliving things [7]. Interestingly not only high-level cognitive processes (such as mind attribution and empathy [8]) seem to be modulated by the perceived sexualization of the target, but also low-level cognitive processes (such as perceptual recognition). For instance, Gervais and colleagues [9], showed part-to-whole effects with only women´s sexual body parts being recognized equally well regardless of whether they were presented in the context of the entire body or in isolation, while men's sexual body parts were recognized better when they were presented in the context of the entire body rather than in isolation. ...
A controversial hypothesis, named the Sexualized Body Inversion Hypothesis (SBIH), claims similar visual processing of sexually objectified women (i.e., with a focus on the sexual body parts) and inanimate objects as indicated by an absence of the inversion effect for both type of stimuli. The current study aims at shedding light into the mechanisms behind the SBIH in a series of 4 experiments. Using a modified version of Bernard et al.´s (2012) visual-matching task, first we tested the core assumption of the SBIH, namely that a similar processing style occurs for sexualized human bodies and objects. In Experiments 1 and 2 a non-sexualized (personalized) condition plus two object-control conditions (mannequins, and houses) were included in the experimental design. Results showed an inversion effect for images of personalized women and mannequins, but not for sexualized women and houses. Second, we explored whether this effect was driven by differences in stimulus asymmetry, by testing the mediating and moderating role of this visual feature. In Experiment 3, we provided the first evidence that not only the sexual attributes of the images but also additional perceptual features of the stimuli, such as their asymmetry, played a moderating role in shaping the inversion effect. Lastly, we investigated the strategy adopted in the visual-matching task by tracking eye movements of the participants. Results of Experiment 4 suggest an association between a specific pattern of visual exploration of the images and the presence of the inversion effect. Findings are discussed with respect to the literature on sexual objectification.
Research on sexual objectification has mostly taken a heterosexual perspective and has studied gay men to understand when they become victims rather than agents of this phenomenon. In three studies we investigated gay men as agents of sexual objectification and the underlying motives that guide their biased perceptions. In Study 1, using electroencephalography, gay men showed to objectify women more than men. In Study 2a and Study 2b, results confirmed this tendency and demonstrated that exposure to sexually objectified depictions of women on content-rather than relational-based (social) media was positively related to the sexual objectification of women. Media exposure to female sexualization can increase and explain why women remain the target of sexual objectification regardless of one’s sexual orientation.
Gender-based microaggressions have been associated with persistent disparities between women and men in academia. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying those often subtle and unintentional yet detrimental behaviors. Here, we assessed the neural responses to gender-based microaggressions in 28 early career faculty in medicine (N = 16 female, N = 12 male sex) using fMRI. Participants watched 33 videos of situations demonstrating gender-based microaggressions and control situations in academic medicine. Video topics had been previously identified through real-life anecdotes about microaggression from women faculty and were scripted and reenacted using professional actors. Primary voxel-wise analyses comparing group differences in activation elucidated a significant group by condition interaction in a right-lateralized cluster across the frontal (inferior and middle frontal gyri, frontal pole, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus) and parietal lobes (supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus). Whereas women faculty exhibited reduced activation in these regions during the microaggression relative to the control condition, the opposite was true for men. Posthoc analyses showed that these patterns were significantly associated with the degree to which participants reported feeling judged for their gender in academic medicine. Lastly, secondary exploratory ROI analyses showed significant between-group differences in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. Women activated these two regions less in the microaggression condition compared to the control condition, whereas men did not. These findings indicate that the observation of gender-based microaggressions results in a specific pattern of neural reactivity in women early career faculty.
Sexually objectified women are perceived as dehumanized. This may affect the behavioral and neural responses underlying the observer's empathic reactions for their physical pain, although this hypothesis still lacks empirical support. In the present study, we measured the electrophysiological activity of 30 participants (14 females and 16 males), in an empathy for physical pain paradigm in which pictures of sexualized and non-sexualized women were presented in painful and non-painful situations. The behavioral results revealed that sexualized women were evaluated as experiencing less pain than non-sexualized women. Neural evidence corroborated this finding showing that the perception of vicarious physical pain is lacking for sexualized women in both event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain oscillation domains. Specifically, the P2 component and the event-related synchronization/desynchronization (ERS/ERD) on the mu frequency band differed between painful and non-painful stimulation exclusively when women were not sexualized. Our results provide the first evidence that the neurophysiological responses to the vicarious experience of physical pain are dampened or even absent for sexualized women. These findings expand our understanding of the neurophysiological signatures of empathic processes and highlight the detrimental effect of a sexual-objectification bias in everyday contexts.
Does wearing makeup benefit women by changing how they perceive themselves, and are the perceptions that others make of makeup wearers positive, or negative? In two pre‐registered experiments, we investigated the effects of makeup on women's self‐perceived traits, and others’ objectifying perceptions of them. In Experiment 1, 229 women imagined one of four scenarios (e.g., a romantic date). Half applied makeup for that scenario before rating their self‐perceived agency, humanness, romantic competitiveness towards other women and reactions to partner jealousy. Results showed little evidence that applying makeup affected women's self‐perceived traits. In Experiment 2, 844 participants rated images of women's faces from Experiment 1 on their mental capacity and moral status. Women wearing more makeup were attributed less mental capacity and moral status, with attributions mediated by perceptions that heavier makeup‐wearers have more sex and are more physically attractive. Findings suggest that although women experience cultural pressure to wear makeup, negative stereotypes of makeup‐wearers may lead to detrimental perceptions of women.
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Background
The proportion of women as leading physicians in cardiology in university medicine has stagnated and the share of women in senior positions in cardiology is low compared with other medical specialist fields. Here, we analyze the typical barriers for women as doctors in cardiology and point to issues that make the discipline less attractive for both genders.Methods
In a cross-sectional study, a standardized online questionnaire was sent to 3873 members of the German Cardiac Society (DGK). Answers from 567 (278 women, 289 men) were analyzed, using comparisons between groups, correlation analyses, and tests of normal distribution.ResultsFor 47.4% of respondents (52.0%, of women; 42.8%, of men; p = 0.049), training had lasted longer than anticipated. Average monthly gross income (full-time work) differed significantly between women and men as specialists (p = 0.004) and assistant doctors (p = 0.030). Of women, 32.1% had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. The main arguments against a career in university medicine were an extremely competitive working climate (66.7% of women, 63.2% of men), lack of work–life balance (66.7% women, 55.3% men), and excessive workload (57.8% women, 62.5% men). As strategies to increase job attractiveness, both mentioned measures to improve the work–life balance, and the flexibility of working times and improved financial provision. Women asked for gender balance at management level (76.3% vs. 32.9% of men) and opportunities for sharing management tasks (82.4% vs. 57.9%). Flatter hierarchies were requested by more men (67.1 vs. 54.8%).Conclusion
Further development of the work culture in cardiology seems necessary. In order to increase the attractiveness of the field overall and to provide equal opportunities in cardiology, more targeted support should be provided to young doctors and more flexibility introduced into work.
Objectification occurs when a person is perceived akin to an object. Recent research has defined objectification as a process through which a person is reduced to her constituent features (e.g., body parts) in a way that resembles how objects are processed. The inversion effect (better recognition for upright stimuli than for inverted ones) has often been used as a cognitive measure of objectification, with the inversion effect typically emerging for human stimuli, but not for objects. This paper aimed to evaluate the construct validity of the body inversion effect as a measure of objectification by examining whether the body inversion effect correlates with personality and individual differences conceptually related to objectification. To test our hypotheses, 318 participants (162 men, 156 women) completed a new online version of the behavioral body inversion paradigm (B-BIP), followed by a questionnaire measuring objectification-related variables (objectifying behaviors, self-control, sexism, and dark triad traits). Seeing women as objects (lower body inversion effects) was associated with more objectifying behaviors, lower self-control, higher levels of sexism, and more dark triad traits among men and women, which provides preliminary evidence that the body inversion effect is a valid measure of women's objectification. We discussed the implications and limitations of these findings.
Social exclusion refers to the experience of being disregarded or rejected by others and has wide-ranging negative consequences for well-being and cognition. Cyberball, a game where a ball is virtually tossed between players, then leads to the exclusion of the research participant, is a common method used to examine the experience of social exclusion. The neural correlates of social exclusion remain a topic of debate, particularly with regards to the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the concept of social pain. Here we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to identify brain activity reliably engaged by social exclusion during Cyberball task performance (Studies = 53; total N = 1,817 participants). Results revealed consistent recruitment in ventral anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate cortex, inferior and superior frontal gyri, posterior insula, and occipital pole. No reliable activity was observed in dACC. Using a probabilistic atlas to define dACC, fewer than 15% of studies reported peak coordinates in dACC. Meta-analytic connectivity mapping suggests patterns of co-activation are consistent with the topography of the default network. Reverse inference for cognition associated with reliable Cyberball activity computed in Neurosynth revealed social exclusion to be associated with cognitive terms Social, Autobiographical, Mental States, and Theory of Mind. Taken together, these findings highlight the role of the default network in social exclusion and warns against interpretations of the dACC as a key region involved in the experience of social exclusion in humans.
Extensive experimental research has been conducted to investigate how individuals empathise with others depending on contextual and motivational factors. However, the effect of sexual objectification (i.e. focus on the individual’s physical appearance over his/her mental state) on empathy is scarce at best thus far. The aim of this work is to shed light on whether objectification modulates empathic responses toward humans and human-like objects. In Experiment 1, participants either underwent visuo-tactile stimulation or witnessed another person (a mannequin, a sexualized or a non-sexualized female confederate) being stimulated with pleasant or unpleasant objects. Participants were then asked to report either their own or the other’s emotional experience. Results showed that shared representations (i.e. similarity between self-other emotional ratings) are significantly lower for the mannequin, intermediate for the sexualized woman, and reach the highest values for the non-sexualized woman. In Experiment 2, shared representations were assessed during a ball-tossing game in which the participants or one of the two confederates (sexualized or non-sexualized woman) were excluded from the game. Again, results showed reduced similarity between self-other emotional ratings toward sexualized as compared to non-sexualized women. The findings suggest that interacting with sexually objectified women reduces empathic responses typically observed within human relations.
Sexual objectification is a subtle manifestation of sexist discrimination and violence against women that involves seeing and treating women as sex objects of male sexual desire. The primary aim of this research was to connect sexual objectification experiences with heterosexual intimate partner violence. This set of studies examined the impact of sexual objectification on intimate partner violence for both the female victim (Study 1) and the male perpetrator (Study 2). Female (Study 1) and male (Study 2) participants were asked to rate the extent they are victims or perpetrators of sexual objectification experiences and intimate partner violence. Moreover, women’s self-silencing and men’s ascriptions of humanity and empathy (through empathic concern and perspective taking) toward their partner was assessed. The results of the first study (including 154 heterosexual women) showed that general sexual objectification victimization indirectly leads to higher psychological and physical violence through the internalization of self-silence schemas. The second study (including 165 heterosexual men) demonstrated a link between general sexual objectification perpetration and psychological and physical intimate partner violence. Moreover, the relation between men’s perpetration of objectification and intimate partner violence was mediated by ascriptions of humanity and empathic concern toward their female partner (but not through perspective taking toward her). Results of both studies demonstrate the effect of sexual objectification (as target or perpetrator) on global intimate partner violence and explain the different psychological mechanisms through which it takes place depending on the gendered perspective. Theoretical implications and practical considerations for interventions on intimate partner violence are discussed.
Recent research has examined the sexualization–objectification link (i.e., whether sexualized individuals are appraised as if they were objects rather than persons). This research has found that sexualized individuals are more likely to be processed and categorized as if they were objects and are also perceived as possessing fewer humanlike traits than nonsexualized individuals. In addition, sexualization prompts negative behaviors such as social exclusion. Altogether, these findings shed light on mechanisms that might underlie violence toward sexualized individuals.
Self-initiated action is critical to social interaction and individuals with social anxiety find it particularly difficult to initiate social interactions. We showed earlier that social exclusion encumbered self-initiated actions in the Cyberball task in young adults. Here, we examined whether behavioral performance and regional responses during self-initiated actions vary with age in 53 participants (21-74 years; 27 men). Behaviorally, participants were slower in tossing the ball during exclusion (EX) than during fair game (FG) sessions in both men and women. In women but not in men the reaction time (RT) burden (RT_EX - RT_FG; RT prolonged during social exclusion) of ball toss was positively correlated with age despite no observed sex difference in Social Interaction Anxiety Scale scores. The pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), thalamus, left occipital cortex (OC) and left insula/orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) responded to ball toss in EX vs. FG in negative correlation with age in women but not in men. Further, the activation of left OC fully mediated the relationship between age and RT burden in women. Thus, older women are more encumbered in self-initiated action during social exclusion, although this behavioral burden is not reflected in subjective reports of social anxiety. Age-related diminution in OC activities may reflect the neural processes underlying the difficulty in initiating social interactions in women. Together, the findings identified age-sensitive behavioral and neural processes of self-initiated action in the Cyberball task and suggest the importance of considering age and sex differences in studies of social interaction.
Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.
The fall in the rate of violent crime has stopped. This is a finding of an investigation using the Crime Survey for England
and Wales, 1994–2014, and an improved methodology to include the experiences of high-frequency victims. The cap on the number
of crimes included has been removed. We prevent overall volatility from rising by using three-year moving averages and regression
techniques that take account of all the data points rather than point to point analysis. The difference between our findings
and official statistics is driven by violent crime committed against women and by domestic perpetrators. The timing of the
turning point in the trajectory of violent crime corresponds with the economic crisis in 2008/09.
In two studies, we examined the impact of sexualization of prepubescent girls on college students’ perceptions of girls’ mental capacity and moral standing. Previous research has shown that women depicted in sexualized and other body-focused ways are perceived as lacking mental capacities and moral standing; these perceptions reduce concern about them when they are victimized. However, no other research to date has examined whether the same effects hold for young girls. Study 1 demonstrated that college students attributed lower mental capacity and lower moral status to girls dressed in revealing attire in the same way, and to the same degree, as they viewed sexually mature women. In Study 2, we replicated this finding and found that objectifying perceptions are associated with less sympathetic responses to girls in a bullying scenario. Participants showed less care that sexually objectified girls had been harmed, less favorable attitudes towards helping them, and a greater belief that the girls were responsible for being victimized. Taken together, these findings suggest that the potentially damaging manifestations and consequences of objectification are manifest before girls reach womanhood. We suggest recommendations for reducing the sexualization of young girls. Additional online materials for this article are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ’s website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental
A blossoming body of research documents the effect of sexual objectification on social perception, but little is known about the consequences of sexual objectification. This paper examines how sexual objectification influences men and women’s rape perceptions in case of a stranger rape. We hypothesized that victims’ sexual objectification might diminish rapist blame and increase victim blame in cases of stranger rape. Fifty-eight male and 57 female Belgian undergraduate students were assigned to either a sexual objectifying (i.e., body focus) or to a personalized portrayal (i.e., face focus) of a rape victim. After reading a newspaper report depicting a stranger rape, participants were asked to evaluate the extent to which they blamed the rapist and the victim. As predicted, participants blamed the rapist less in the sexual objectification condition, regardless of participant gender. In contrast, sexual objectification did not increase victim blame. These results have implications for the well-being of rape victims, as well as for the functioning of justice if it leads authorities to show leniency towards the length of penalty a rapist may receive. The implications of these findings for future research on sexual objectification and gender differences in rape perception are also discussed.
Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty By Simon Baron-Cohen. Allen Lane Publishing. 2011. £20.00 (hb). 208pp. ISBN: 9780713997910
The Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, Simon Baron-Cohen is a well-known expert on autism. He has appeared in the media
Recently, Bernard, Gervais, Allen, Campomizzi, and Klein (2012) reported that individuals were less able to recognize inverted vs. upright pictures of sexualized men as compared to women. Based on their formulation of the sexualized-body-inversion hypothesis (SBIH) it was concluded that sexualized women as compared to men are perceived in a more object-like manner supporting sexual objectification (SO) of females – independent from observer gender. We challenge this interpretation and hypothesize that the originally reported effect is the result of a methodological artifact due to gender-symmetry and stimuli setup-symmetry confounds in the original stimulus set. We tested this theoretically more parsimonious account in a methodologically stricter and extended conceptual replication of the putative SO-effect. Results from two studies showed that the original stimulus set indeed suffered from symmetry confounds and that these are necessary boundary-conditions in order for the hypothetical SO-effect to occur. It is concluded that the SBIH as postulated by Bernard et al. (2012) is based on a methodological artifact and cannot be related to SO but symmetry detection.
Recent research has shown that experiencing events that represent a significant threat to social bonds activates a network
of brain areas associated with the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain. In the present study, we investigated whether the
same brain areas are involved when witnessing social exclusion threats experienced by others. Using a within-subject design,
we show that an ecologically valid experience of social exclusion recruits areas coding the somatosensory components of physical
pain (posterior insular cortex and secondary somatosensory cortex). Furthermore, we show that this pattern of activation not
only holds for directly experienced social pain, but also during empathy for social pain. Finally, we report that subgenual
cingulate cortex is the only brain area conjointly active during empathy for physical and social pain. This supports recent
theories that affective processing and homeostatic regulation are at the core of empathic responses.
Assumptions regarding the importance of empathy are pervasive. Given the impact these assumptions have on research, assessment, and treatment, it is imperative to know whether they are valid. Of particular interest is a basic question: Are deficits in empathy associated with aggressive behavior? Previous attempts to review the relation between empathy and aggression yielded inconsistent results and generally included a small number of studies. To clarify these divergent findings, we comprehensively reviewed the relation of empathy to aggression in adults, including community, student, and criminal samples. A mixed effects meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies involving 106 effect sizes revealed that the relation between empathy and aggression was surprisingly weak (r = -.11). This finding was fairly consistent across specific types of aggression, including verbal aggression (r = -.20), physical aggression (r = -.12), and sexual aggression (r = -.09). Several potentially important moderators were examined, although they had little impact on the total effect size. The results of this study are particularly surprising given that empathy is a core component of many treatments for aggressive offenders and that most psychological disorders of aggression include diagnostic criteria specific to deficient empathic responding. We discuss broad conclusions, consider implications for theory, and address current limitations in the field, such as reliance on a small number of self-report measures of empathy. We highlight the need for diversity in measurement and suggest a new operationalization of empathy that may allow it to synchronize with contemporary thinking regarding its role in aggressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Sexual objectification changes the way people view women by reducing them to sexual objects—denied humanity and an internal mental life, as well as deemed unworthy of moral concern. However, the subsequent consequences of sexually objectifying others remain underresearched. In the current study, we examined the impact of objectification in the domain of sexual assault. Sixty British undergraduate students were recruited to complete an impression formation task. We manipulated objectification by presenting participants with either a sexualized or nonsexualized woman. Participants rated the woman’s mind and the extent to which they felt moral concern for her. They then learned that she was the victim of an acquaintance rape and reported victim blame and both blatant and subtle perceptions of her suffering. Consistent with prior research, sexualized women were objectified through a denial of mental states and moral concern. Further, compared with nonobjectified women, the objectified were perceived to be more responsible for being raped. Interestingly, although no difference emerged for blatant measures of suffering, participants tacitly denied the victims’ suffering by exhibiting changes in moral concern for the victim. We conclude that objectification has important consequences for how people view victims of sexual assault. Our findings reveal that sexual objectification can have serious consequences and we discuss how these might influence how victims cope and recover from sexual assault.
Minimal group experiments showed that mere categorization of individuals into arbitrary social groups can be sufficient to elicit ingroup favouritism. This effect has been qualified by demonstrating a positive–negative asymmetry in social discrimination: categorization into minimal, laboratory groups was sufficient to elicit ingroup favouritism in allocations of positive stimuli, but not in allocations of negative ones. Different explanatory perspectives for this valence-specific asymmetry in intergroup behaviour were tested. An integrative perspective linking normative, cognitive and motivational aspects is proposed. This perspective also implies a critical analysis and re-framing of traditional theorizing on categorization effects in minimal intergroup situations.
The authors present a theory of sexism formulated as ambivalence toward women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). The ASI taps 2 positively correlated components of sexism that nevertheless represent opposite evaluative orientations toward women: sexist antipathy or
Hostile Sexism (HS) and a subjectively positive (for sexist men) orientation toward women,
Benevolent Sexism (BS). HS and BS are hypothesized to encompass 3 sources of male ambivalence: Paternalism, Gender Differentiation, and Heterosexuality. Six ASI studies on 2,250 respondents established convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes toward women, the HS scale correlates with negative attitudes toward and stereotypes about women, and the BS scale (for nonstudent men only) correlates with positive attitudes and stereotypes about women. A copy of the ASI is provided, with scoring instructions, as a tool for further explorations of sexist ambivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The experience of pain appears to be associated, from early infancy and across pain stimuli, with a consistent facial expression in humans. A social function is proposed for this: the communication of pain and the need for help to observers, to whom information about danger is of value, and who may provide help within a kin or cooperative relationship. Some commentators have asserted that the evidence is insufficient to account for the consistency of the face, as judged by technical means or in the perceptions of observers, or that facial expression is epiphenomenal to a gross behavioural defensive response to pain. The major criticism is that it is unnecessary to invoke evolutionary mechanisms beyond the emergence of an unconditioned facial response to pain in neonates, subsequently shaped and maintained by instrumental and social reinforcement throughout life. These criticisms are addressed, acknowledging the need for further data to address some, and elaborating the areas in which evolutionary and operant mechanisms would predict different behavioural interactions, rather than acting synergistically. Several supportive commentaries propose extending evolutionarily-based hypotheses to sex differences, the complexities of others' responses within the social relationship, and the role of empathy. A number of commentators provided valuable suggestions for experimental paradigms or methodological issues. Overall, addressing these issues indicates the need for further conceptual development and for collection of data specifically in relation to these hypotheses.
Focusing on the dehumanization of sexually objectified targets, study 1 tested the extent to which objectified and non-objectified male and female publicity photos were associated with human compared to animal concepts. Results confirmed the hypothesis that, among all targets, only objectified women were associated with less human concepts. This pattern of results emerged for both male and female participants but likely for different reasons. Study 2 directly looked at female and male participants' affinity with sexually objectified women. Results indicated that the more women distanced themselves from sexually objectified women the more they dehumanized them, whereas men's sexual attraction moderated their tendency to dehumanize female targets. In study 3, this latter motivation was operationalized as the activation of a sex goal and showed to trigger man's but not woman's dehumanization of female targets. Overall, the present set of studies show that only sexually objectified women are dehumanized by both men and women but for different reasons. Whereas sexual attraction shifts a men's focus of a female target away from her personality onto her body triggering a dehumanization process, women are more inclined to dehumanize their sexually objectified counterparts the more they distance themselves from these sexualized representations of their gender category. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In the study reported here, we tested the novel sexualized-body-inversion hypothesis. Integrating research and theory on objectification and person versus object recognition, we examined whether sexualized women, but not sexualized men, are recognized in the same way as objects are. According to objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), female bodies are scrutinized and evaluated to a greater degree than male bodies are, which leads to sexual objectification of women. Defined as viewing or treating an individual as a sexualized body, or as sexualized body parts, available for satisfying the needs and desires of other people (Bartky, 1990), sexual objectification has been recently operationalized by portraying the target wearing underwear or a swimsuit.
We tested the sexualized-body-inversion hypothesis in the present study: If sexualized women are viewed as objects and sexualized men are viewed as persons, then sexualized female bodies will be recognized equally well when inverted as when upright (object-like recognition), whereas sexualized male bodies will be recognized better when upright than when inverted (person-like recognition).
Includes Supplemental Materials.
Ostracism is such a widely used and powerful tactic that the authors tested whether people would be affected by it even under remote and artificial circumstances. In Study 1, 1,486 participants from 62 countries accessed the authors' on-line experiment on the Internet. They were asked to use mental visualization while playing a virtual tossing game with two others (who were actually computer generated and controlled). Despite the minimal nature of their experience, the more participants were ostracized, the more they reported feeling bad, having less control, and losing a sense of belonging. In Study 2, ostracized participants were more likely to conform on a subsequent task. The results are discussed in terms of supporting K. D. Williams's (1997) need threat theory of ostracism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved). (from the journal abstract)
According to models of objectification, viewing someone as a body induces de-mentalization, stripping away their psychological traits. Here evidence is presented for an alternative account, where a body focus does not diminish the attribution of all mental capacities but, instead, leads perceivers to infer a different kind of mind. Drawing on the distinction in mind perception between agency and experience, it is found that focusing on someone's body reduces perceptions of agency (self-control and action) but increases perceptions of experience (emotion and sensation). These effects were found when comparing targets represented by both revealing versus nonrevealing pictures (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or by simply directing attention toward physical characteristics (Experiment 2). The effect of a body focus on mind perception also influenced moral intuitions, with those represented as a body seen to be less morally responsible (i.e., lesser moral agents) but more sensitive to harm (i.e., greater moral patients; Experiments 5 and 6). These effects suggest that a body focus does not cause objectification per se but, instead, leads to a redistribution of perceived mind.
It is well established that a lack of social support constitutes a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality, comparable to risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure. Although it has been hypothesized that social support may benefit health by reducing physiological reactivity to stressors, the mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Moreover, to date, no studies have investigated the neurocognitive mechanisms that translate experiences of social support into the health outcomes that follow. To investigate these processes, thirty participants completed three tasks in which daily social support, neurocognitive reactivity to a social stressor, and neuroendocrine responses to a social stressor were assessed. Individuals who interacted regularly with supportive individuals across a 10-day period showed diminished cortisol reactivity to a social stressor. Moreover, greater social support and diminished cortisol responses were associated with diminished activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and Brodmann's area (BA) 8, regions previously associated with the distress of social separation. Lastly, individual differences in dACC and BA 8 reactivity mediated the relationship between high daily social support and low cortisol reactivity, such that supported individuals showed reduced neurocognitive reactivity to social stressors, which in turn was associated with reduced neuroendocrine stress responses. This study is the first to investigate the neural underpinnings of the social support-health relationship and provides evidence that social support may ultimately benefit health by diminishing neural and physiological reactivity to social stressors.
Empathy is a critical function regulating human social life. In particular, empathy for pain is a source of deep emotional feelings and a strong trigger of pro-social behavior. We investigated the existence of a racial bias in the emotional reaction to other people's pain and its link with implicit racist biases. Measuring participants’ physiological arousal, we found that Caucasian observers reacted to pain suffered by African people significantly less than to pain of Caucasian people. The reduced reaction to the pain of African individuals was also correlated with the observers’ individual implicit race bias. The role of others’ race in moderating empathic reactions is a crucial clue for understanding to what extent social interactions, and possibly integration, may be influenced by deeply rooted automatic and uncontrollable responses.
Involvement with friends carries many advantages for adolescents, including protection from the detrimental effects of being
rejected by peers. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which friendships may serve their protective role
at this age, or the potential benefit of these friendships as adolescents transition to adulthood. As such, this investigation
tested whether friend involvement during adolescence related to less neural sensitivity to social threats during young adulthood.
Twenty-one adolescents reported the amount of time they spent with friends outside of school using a daily diary. Two years
later they underwent an fMRI scan, during which they were ostensibly excluded from an online ball-tossing game by two same-age
peers. Findings from region of interest and whole brain analyses revealed that spending more time with friends during adolescence
related to less activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula—regions previously linked with negative
affect and pain processing—during an experience of peer rejection 2 years later. These findings are consistent with the notion
that positive relationships during adolescence may relate to individuals being less sensitive to negative social experiences
later on.
Neuroimaging studies with adults have begun to reveal the neural bases of empathy; however, this research has focused on empathy for physical pain, rather than empathy for negative social experiences. Moreover, this work has not examined adolescents who may frequently witness and empathize with others that experience negative social experiences such as peer rejection. Here, we examined neural activity among early adolescents observing social exclusion compared to observing inclusion, and how this activity related to both trait empathy and subsequent prosocial behavior. Participants were scanned while they observed an individual whom they believed was being socially excluded. At least one day prior to the scan they reported their trait empathy, and following the scan they wrote emails to the excluded victim that were rated for prosocial behavior (e.g., helping, comforting). Observing exclusion compared to inclusion activated regions involved in mentalizing (i.e., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), particularly among highly empathic individuals. Additionally, individuals who displayed more activity in affective, pain-related regions during observed exclusion compared to inclusion subsequently wrote more prosocial emails to excluded victims. Overall findings suggest that when early adolescents witness social exclusion in their daily lives, some may actually 'feel the pain' of the victims and act more prosocially toward them as a result.
Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain-physical and social-may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants' brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.
Although social psychology studies suggest that racism often manifests itself as a lack of empathy, i.e., the ability to share and comprehend others' feelings and intentions, evidence for differential empathic reactivity to the pain of same- or different-race individuals is meager. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we explored sensorimotor empathic brain responses in black and white individuals who exhibited implicit but not explicit ingroup preference and race-specific autonomic reactivity. We found that observing the pain of ingroup models inhibited the onlookers' corticospinal system as if they were feeling the pain. Both black and white individuals exhibited empathic reactivity also when viewing the pain of stranger, very unfamiliar, violet-hand models. By contrast, no vicarious mapping of the pain of individuals culturally marked as outgroup members on the basis of their skin color was found. Importantly, group-specific lack of empathic reactivity was higher in the onlookers who exhibited stronger implicit racial bias. These results indicate that human beings react empathically to the pain of stranger individuals. However, racial bias and stereotypes may change this reactivity into a group-specific lack of sensorimotor resonance.
Romantic rejection causes a profound sense of loss and negative affect. It can induce clinical depression and in extreme cases lead to suicide and/or homicide. To begin to identify the neural systems associated with this natural loss state, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study 10 women and 5 men who had recently been rejected by a partner but reported they were still intensely "in love." Participants alternately viewed a photograph of their rejecting beloved and a photograph of a familiar, individual, interspersed with a distraction-attention task. Their responses while looking at their rejecter included love, despair, good, and bad memories, and wondering why this happened. Activation specific to the image of the beloved occurred in areas associated with gains and losses, craving and emotion regulation and included the ventral tegmental area (VTA) bilaterally, ventral striatum, medial and lateral orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus. Compared with data from happily-in-love individuals, the regional VTA activation suggests that mesolimbic reward/survival systems are involved in romantic passion regardless of whether one is happily or unhappily in love. Forebrain activations associated with motivational relevance, gain/loss, cocaine craving, addiction, and emotion regulation suggest that higher-order systems subject to experience and learning also may mediate the rejection reaction. The results show activation of reward systems, previously identified by monetary stimuli, in a natural, endogenous, negative emotion state. Activation of areas involved in cocaine addiction may help explain the obsessive behaviors associated with rejection in love.
Social dominance orientation (SDO), one's degree of preference for inequality among social groups, is introduced. On the basis of social dominance theory, it is shown that (a) men are more social dominance-oriented than women, (b) high-SDO people seek hierarchy-enhancing professional roles and low-SDO people seek hierarchy-attenuating roles, (c) SDO was related to beliefs in a large number of social and political ideologies that support group-based hierarchy (e.g., meritocracy and racism) and to support for policies that have implications for intergroup relations (e.g., war, civil rights, and social programs), including new policies. SDO was distinguished from interpersonal dominance, conservatism, and authoritariansim. SDO was negatively correlated with empathy, tolerance, communality, and altruism. The ramifications of SDO in social context are discussed. African and African American Studies Psychology
Engaging in mentalizing, i.e., reflecting on others' thoughts, beliefs and feelings, is known to facilitate later empathy and prosocial behavior. Activation in dorsomedial prefrontal (dmPFC) areas during men-talizing has been shown to predict the extent of prosocial behavior. It is unclear, however, what cognitive process drives these effects: a simulation process in which the own mental states are used as a proxy for those of others (self-projection) or an effortful other-enhancement process in which one's own perspective is overridden. In this fMRI study we examined the effects of mentalizing with similar and dissimilar others on behavioral and brain measures of empathy and prosocial behavior, to assess which cognitive process mediates the facilitative effects of mentalizing. Participants had to mentalize with two fictitious target persons, one of whom was manipulated to have similar thoughts and beliefs as the participant, while the other had dissimilar mental states. We then assessed participants' behavioral and neural responses during an empathy for pain task and a prosocial behavior task. Similarity between participant and target person increased empathy and affiliation ratings, and mentalizing with dissimilar persons evoked increased activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the extent of which was inversely related with bias towards the similar person in empathy. Responses in two dmPFC regions were also predictive of later variations in subsequent empathy and prosocial behavior, either predicting overall prosociality and empathic concern (lateral dmPFC), or predicting reduced empathic bias towards the similar person and a lower response to self-related stressors in pain matrix areas (medial dmPFC). This pattern of results suggests that generating and enhancing other-related representations while overcoming one's own perspective , rather than enhanced recruitment of self-projection processes, is driving the facilitative effects of mentalizing on later empathic and prosocial responses.
This chapter provides an overview of how the general linear model, the workhorse of functional imaging analysis, provides a single framework for many statistical tests and models, giving great flexibility for experimental design and analysis. After reconstruction, realignment, spatial normalization, and smoothing, functional imaging data are ready for statistical analysis. This involves two steps: firstly, statistics indicating evidence against a null hypothesis of no effect at each voxel are computed. An image of these statistics is then produced. Secondly, this statistical image must be assessed, reliably locating voxels where an effect is exhibited while limiting the possibility of false positives. These two steps are referred to as modelling and inference respectively. The current methods for assessing the data at each voxel are predominantly parametric. Specific forms of probability distribution are assumed for the data, and hypotheses specified in terms of models assumed for the parameters of these distributions. The majority of the statistical models used are special cases of the general linear model, which requires some basic matrix algebra and statistical concepts. This is used to develop an understanding of classical hypothesis testing.
With the assumption that a stereotype is in part, a collection of associations that link a target group to a set of descriptive characteristics, the present research engaged high-and low-prejudice scoring white subjects (19 males, Experiment 1; 9 males and 12 females, Experiment 2) in a lexical decision task patterned after Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971, 1976). The task yields a measure of associative strength between two words (e.g., BLACK:LAZY; WHITES:LAZY) based upon the amount of time subjects take to decide whether or not they are both words. Meyer and Schvaneveldt reported that high associates (NURSE:DOCTOR) yielded faster reaction times than low associates (DOCTOR:BUTTER). The results of the present research indicated that subjects, regardless of prejudice score, responded reliably faster when positive attitudes (e.g., SMART) were paired with WHITES than when they were paired with BLACKS (Experiment 1) or with NEGROES (Experiment 2). Nevertheless, negative attributes paired with BLACKS or NEGROES were responded to as quickly as when they were paired with WHITES. These results, together with Experiment 3, which involved the ascription of these characteristics more directly, suggest that white college students, no longer differentially associate or ascribe negative characteristics, but continue to differentially associate and ascribe positive attributes to black and to whites.
Current theories suggest that physical pain and social rejection share common neural mechanisms, largely by virtue of overlapping functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity. Here we challenge this notion by identifying distinct multivariate fMRI patterns unique to pain and rejection. Sixty participants experience painful heat and warmth and view photos of ex-partners and friends on separate trials. FMRI pattern classifiers discriminate pain and rejection from their respective control conditions in out-of-sample individuals with 92% and 80% accuracy. The rejection classifier performs at chance on pain, and vice versa. Pain- and rejection-related representations are uncorrelated within regions thought to encode pain affect (for example, dorsal anterior cingulate) and show distinct functional connectivity with other regions in a separate resting-state data set (N=91). These findings demonstrate that separate representations underlie pain and rejection despite common fMRI activity at the gross anatomical level. Rather than co-opting pain circuitry, rejection involves distinct affective representations in humans.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the most popular method for imaging brain function. Handbook of Functional MRI Data Analysis provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the methods used for fMRI data analysis. Using minimal jargon, this book explains the concepts behind processing fMRI data, focusing on the techniques that are most commonly used in the field. This book provides background about the methods employed by common data analysis packages including FSL, SPM and AFNI. Some of the newest cutting-edge techniques, including pattern classification analysis, connectivity modeling and resting state network analysis, are also discussed. Readers of this book, whether newcomers to the field or experienced researchers, will obtain a deep and effective knowledge of how to employ fMRI analysis to ask scientific questions and become more sophisticated users of fMRI analysis software.
We review early and recent psychological theories of dehumanization and survey the burgeoning empirical literature, focusing on six fundamental questions. First, we examine how people are dehumanized, exploring the range of ways in which perceptions of lesser humanness have been conceptualized and demonstrated. Second, we review who is dehumanized, examining the social targets that have been shown to be denied humanness and commonalities among them. Third, we investigate who dehumanizes, notably the personality, ideological, and other individual differences that increase the propensity to see others as less than human. Fourth, we explore when people dehumanize, focusing on transient situational and motivational factors that promote dehumanizing perceptions. Fifth, we examine the consequences of dehumanization, emphasizing its implications for prosocial and antisocial behavior and for moral judgment. Finally, we ask what can be done to reduce dehumanization. We conclude with a discussion of limitations of current scholarship and directions for future research. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 65 is January 03, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Although a great deal of research has examined the effects of objectification on women's self-perceptions and behavior, empirical research has yet to address how objectifying a woman affects the way she is perceived by others. We hypothesize that focusing on a woman's appearance will promote reduced perceptions of competence, and also, by virtue of construing the women as an "object", perceptions of the woman as less human. We found initial experimental evidence for these hypotheses as a function of objectifying two targets - Sarah Palin and Angelina Jolie. In addition, focusing on Palin's appearance reduced intentions to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket (prior to the 2008 US Presidential election). We discuss these findings in the context of the election and the objectification of women.
Most literally, objectification refers to perceiving a person as an object, and consequently, less than fully human. Research on perceptions of humanness and the stereotype content model suggests that humanness is linked to perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Merging these insights with objectification theory, we hypothesized that focusing on a woman's, but not a man's, appearance should induce objectification, and thus reduce perceptions of these characteristics. In three studies, females, but not males, were perceived as less competent (Studies 2 and 3) and less warm and moral (Studies 1.2 and 3) when participants were instructed to focus on their appearance. These findings support our position and help rule out stereotype activation as an alternative explanation to dehumanization. Further, they generalized to targets of different races, familiarity, physical attractiveness and occupational status. Implications for gender inequity and the perpetuation of objectification of women are discussed.
Philosophers have argued that when people are objectified they are treated as if they lack the mental states and moral status associated with personhood. These aspects of objectification have been neglected by psychologists. This research investigates the role of depersonalization in objectification. In Study 1, objectified women were attributed less mind and were accorded lesser moral status than non-objectified women. In Study 2, we replicated this effect with male and female targets and extended it to include perceptions of competence and pain attribution. Further, we explored whether target and perceiver gender qualify depersonalization. Overall, this research indicates that when people are objectified they are denied personhood. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Computer-assisted self-interviews were completed with a random sample of 163 unmarried Caucasian and African American men in a large metropolitan area. Almost a quarter (24.5%) of these men acknowledged committing an act since the age of 14 that met standard legal definitions of attempted or completed rape; an additional 39% had committed another type of sexual assault involving forced sexual contact or verbal coercion. An expanded version of the Malamuth et al. [1991] confluence model was examined using path analysis. The number of sexual assaults perpetrated by participants was associated with the direct or indirect effects of childhood sexual abuse, adolescent delinquency, alcohol problems, sexual dominance, positive attitudes about casual sexual relationships, and pressure from peers to engage in sexual relationships. Additionally, empathy buffered the relationship between sexual dominance and perpetration. The pattern of results was highly similar for African American and Caucasian men. The implications of these findings for sexual assault measurement are discussed and suggestions are made for alternative treatment programs. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–14, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
White university students participated in a study to investigate the impact of defendant race and empathetic induction on a subsequent juror decision-making task. Participants read a passage involving a Black or a White defendant in a criminal case. They were subsequently induced to feel no empathy, low empathy, or high empathy for the defendant. When compared to participants in the low- and control empathy conditions, those in the high-empathy condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. The results also indicate that group membership can moderate the impact of empathetic induction. When compared to the participants in the Black defendant condition, those in the White defendant condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. Implications for both empathy and judicial decision-making research are discussed.
I am grateful to many people for comments that have helped me revise the article, among them: Mary Becker, Joshua Cohen, Richard Craswell, David Estlund, Robert Goodin, John Hodges, Robert Kaster, William Landes, Lawrence Lessig, Charles Nussbaum, Rachel Nussbaum, Richard Posner, Roger Scruton, Cass Sunstein, Candace Vogler. Above all, I am grateful to the students in my Feminist Philosophy class at Brown University, who discussed the article with relentless critical scrutiny, and especially to: Kristi Abrams, Lara Bovilsky, Hayley Finn, Sarah Hirshman, James Maisels, Gabriel Roth, Danya Ruttenberg, Sarah Ruhl, and Dov Weinstein.
This study tests a mediational model of disordered eating derived from objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). The model proposes that the emotion of body shame mediates the relationship between self-objectification and disordered eating. Two samples of undergraduate women (n= 93, n= 111) completed self-report questionnaires assessing self-objectification, body shame, anorexic and bulimic symptoms, and dietary restraint. Findings in both samples supported the mediational model. Additionally, a direct relationship between self-objectification and disordered eating was also observed. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Dehumanization has traditionally been understood as an extreme form of prejudice that enables violence and cruelty. Recent work indicates that it can also take subtle and everyday forms. We give an overview of early contributions to the psychological study of dehumanization before reviewing recent research on the attribution and denial of humanness. We emphasize our own research program, which proceeds from a theoretical analysis of two distinct senses of humanness, which when denied to others yield two forms of dehumanization. In one form, people are denied uniquely human attributes and likened to animals, and in the other, they are denied essentially human attributes and likened to machines. We discuss the ways in which these two forms of dehumanization are manifest in perceptions of individuals and groups, and speculate on the cognitive and motivational processes involved.
Experiences of social rejection, exclusion or loss are generally considered to be some of the most 'painful' experiences that we endure. Indeed, many of us go to great lengths to avoid situations that may engender these experiences (such as public speaking). Why is it that these negative social experiences have such a profound effect on our emotional well-being? Emerging evidence suggests that experiences of social pain--the painful feelings associated with social disconnection--rely on some of the same neurobiological substrates that underlie experiences of physical pain. Understanding the ways in which physical and social pain overlap may provide new insights into the surprising relationship between these two types of experiences.
Previous research has demonstrated self-reports of lower levels of four fundamental needs as a result of short periods of face-to-face ostracism, as well as short periods of Internet ostracism (Cyberball), even when the ostracizing others are unseen, unknown, and not-to-be met. In an attempt to reduce the ostracism experience to a level that would no longer be aversive, we (in Study 1) convinced participants that they were playing Cyberball against a computer, yet still found comparable negative impact compared to when the participants thought they were being ostracized by real others. In Study 2, we took this a step further, and additionally manipulated whether the participants were told the computer or humans were scripted (or told) what to do in the game. Once again, even after removing all remnants of sinister attributions, ostracism was similarly aversive. We interpret these results as strong evidence for a very primitive and automatic adaptive sensitivity to even the slightest hint of social exclusion.
A great deal of research exists on the neural basis of theory-of-mind (ToM) or mentalizing. Qualitative reviews on this topic have identified a mentalizing network composed of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate/precuneus, and bilateral temporal parietal junction. These conclusions, however, are not based on a quantitative and systematic approach. The current review presents a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies pertaining to ToM, using the activation-likelihood estimation (ALE) approach. Separate ALE meta-analyses are presented for story-based and nonstory-based studies of ToM. The conjunction of these two meta-analyses reveals a core mentalizing network that includes areas not typically noted by previous reviews. A third ALE meta-analysis was conducted with respect to story comprehension in order to examine the relation between ToM and stories. Story processing overlapped with many regions of the core mentalizing network, and these shared regions bear some resemblance to a network implicated by a number of other processes.
Despite empathy's importance for promoting social interactions, neuroimaging research has largely overlooked empathy during social experiences. Here, we examined neural activity during empathy for social exclusion and assessed how empathy-related neural processes might relate to subsequent prosocial behavior toward the excluded victim. During an fMRI scan, participants observed one person being excluded by two others, and afterwards sent emails to each of these 'people.' Later, a group of raters assessed how prosocial (e.g., helpful, comforting) the emails were. Observing exclusion (vs. inclusion) activated regions associated with mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus), and highly empathic individuals activated both mentalizing regions and social pain-related regions (anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). Additionally, the empathy-related activity in the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex was associated with later prosocial behavior toward the victim, and exploratory mediation analyses indicated that medial prefrontal cortex activity, in particular, may support the link between trait empathy and prosocial behavior. Overall, findings suggest that empathy-related neural responses to social experiences may promote spontaneous prosocial treatment of those in need.
Social exclusion inherently involves an element of expectancy violation, in that we expect other people to follow the unwritten rule to include us in social interactions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we employed a unique modification of an interactive virtual ball-tossing game called "Cyberball" (Williams et al., 2000) and a novel paradigm called "Cybershape," in which rules are broken in the absence of social exclusion, to dissociate brain regions that process social exclusion from rule violations more generally. Our Cyberball game employed an alternating block design and removed evoked responses to events when the participant was throwing the ball in inclusion to make this condition comparable to exclusion, where participants did not throw. With these modifications, we replicated prior findings of ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), insula, and posterior cingulate cortex activity evoked by social exclusion relative to inclusion. We also identified exclusion-evoked activity in the hippocampi, left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus. Comparing social exclusion and rule violation revealed a functional dissociation in the active neural systems as well as differential functional connectivity with vACC. Some overlap was observed in regions differentially modulated by social exclusion and rule violation, including the vACC and lateral parietal cortex. These overlapping brain regions showed different activation during social exclusion compared to rule violation, each relative to fair play. Comparing activation patterns to social exclusion and rule violation allowed for the dissociation of brain regions involved in the experience of exclusion versus expectancy violation.
Little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying prosocial decisions and how they are modulated by social factors such as perceived group membership. The present study investigates the neural processes preceding the willingness to engage in costly helping toward ingroup and outgroup members. Soccer fans witnessed a fan of their favorite team (ingroup member) or of a rival team (outgroup member) experience pain. They were subsequently able to choose to help the other by enduring physical pain themselves to reduce the other's pain. Helping the ingroup member was best predicted by anterior insula activation when seeing him suffer and by associated self-reports of empathic concern. In contrast, not helping the outgroup member was best predicted by nucleus accumbens activation and the degree of negative evaluation of the other. We conclude that empathy-related insula activation can motivate costly helping, whereas an antagonistic signal in nucleus accumbens reduces the propensity to help.
The discovery of mirror neurons in motor areas of the brain has led many to assume that our ability to understand other people's behaviour partially relies on vicarious activations of motor cortices. This Review focuses the limelight of social neuroscience on a different set of brain regions: the somatosensory cortices. These have anatomical connections that enable them to have a role in visual and auditory social perception. Studies that measure brain activity while participants witness the sensations, actions and somatic pain of others consistently show vicarious activation in the somatosensory cortices. Neuroscientists are starting to understand how the brain adds a somatosensory dimension to our perception of other people.
Agency attribution is a hallmark of mind perception; thus, diminished attributions of agency may disrupt social-cognition processes typically elicited by human targets. The current studies examine the effect of perceivers' sexist attitudes on associations of agency with, and neural responses to, images of sexualized and clothed men and women. In Study 1, male (but not female) participants with higher hostile sexism scores more quickly associated sexualized women with first-person action verbs ("handle") and clothed women with third-person action verbs ("handles") than the inverse, as compared to their less sexist peers. In Study 2, hostile sexism correlated negatively with activation of regions associated with mental state attribution-medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, temporal poles-but only when viewing sexualized women. Heterosexual men best recognized images of sexualized female bodies (but not faces), as compared with other targets' bodies; however, neither face nor body recognition was related to hostile sexism, suggesting that the fMRI findings are not explained by more or less attention to sexualized female targets. Diminished mental state attribution is not unique to targets that people prefer to avoid, as in dehumanization of stigmatized people. The current studies demonstrate that appetitive social targets may elicit a similar response depending on perceivers' attitudes toward them.