Men's hostile sexism and biased perceptions of intimate partners: fostering dissatisfaction and negative behavior in close relationships.
Hostile sexism (HS) expresses attitudes that characterize women who challenge men's power as manipulative and subversive. Does endorsing HS negatively bias perceptions of women's behavior and, in turn, create animosity within intimate relationships? Committed heterosexual couples reported on their own behavior and perceptions of their partner's behavior five times across a year (Study 1) and daily for 3 weeks (Study 2). Men who more strongly endorsed HS perceived their partner's behavior as more negative than was justified by their partner's reports. Furthermore, more negative perceptions of the partner's behavior mediated the links between men's HS and feeling more manipulated by their partners, behaving more negatively toward their partners, and lower relationship quality. This indicates that men who endorse HS behave more negatively toward intimate partners and experience lower relationship satisfaction because their antagonistic attitudes toward women in general permeate the way they perceive those partners.
1University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Matthew D
MD
Hammond
Nickola C
NC
Overall
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D063507:Sexism / Q000523:psychology*; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
bias; close relationships; hostile sexism; relationship behavior; relationship perceptions; relationship satisfaction