Emotional Reactions to Observing Misogyny: Examining the Roles of Gender, Forecasting, Political Orientation, and Religiosity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the reactions of women and men who observe misogyny. The authors examined the emotional distress associated with observing misogyny, and the degree to which this varied based on (a) reading about or actually observing the incivility, (b) political orientation, and (c) religiosity. Participants (n = 205 US college students) took part in a between subjects experiment where they either heard or read about one of two scenarios: two men making a disparaging comment about a woman while she was out of the room, or a situation in which no comment was made. Results indicate that women, but not men, overestimated their emotional distress to observing misogyny. For women, but not men, whether or not the misogynistic comment was heard also interacted with religiosity to predict emotional distress. Political orientation did not have an effect on women and men's reactions. The authors discuss contributions and implications. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.