Status anxiety mediates the positive relationship between income inequality and sexualization
| Autor: | Khandis R. Blake, Robert C. Brooks |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Inequality media_common.quotation_subject Sexual Behavior Social Sciences 050109 social psychology Anxiety 050105 experimental psychology Economic inequality medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Poverty media_common Multidisciplinary 05 social sciences Evolutionary psychology Self Concept Sexualization Incentive Socioeconomic Factors Demographic economics Self-objectification Female medicine.symptom Psychology Social Media |
| Zdroj: | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 |
| Popis: | Income inequality generates and amplifies incentives, particularly incentives for individuals to elevate or maintain their status, with important consequences for the individuals involved and aggregate outcomes for their societies [R. G. Wilkinson, K. E. Pickett, Annu. Rev. Sociol. 35, 493–511 (2009)]. Economically unequal environments intensify men’s competition for status, respect, and, ultimately, mating opportunities, thus elevating aggregate rates of violent crime and homicide [M. Daly, M. Wilson, Evolutionary Psychology and Motivation (2001)]. Recent evidence shows that women are more likely to post “sexy selfies” on social media and that they spend more on beautification in places where inequality is high rather than low [K. R. Blake, B. Bastian, T. F. Denson, et al. , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 8722–8727 (2018)]. Here we test experimentally for causal links between income inequality and individual self-sexualization and status-related competition. We show that manipulating income inequality in a role-playing task indirectly increases women’s intentions to wear revealing clothing and that it does so by increasing women’s anxiety about their place in the social hierarchy. The effects are not better accounted for by wealth/poverty than by inequality or by modeling anxiety about same-sex competitors in place of status anxiety. The results indicate that women’s appearance enhancement is partly driven by status-related goals. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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