Sex Ideology

This study aims to explore the effect of gender role conformity on perception and display of risky pedestrian behaviours among adults. Masculinity and femininity levels were measured among 258 adults (104 men and 154 women). Effects of conformity to masculine and feminine gender role were observed on self-reported frequency of 16 pedestrian behaviours and on danger perception, risk perception and normative beliefs linked to these behaviours. Results show gender difference and effect of gender role conformity on normative beliefs related to pedestrian behaviours. Mistaken and unsafe behaviours are more disapproved by men than by women. Individual with high conformity to masculine gender role more endorse risk-taking and violations than individuals with high conformity to feminine gender role. Links between normative beliefs and behaviours and gender roles contents are discussed.

Viewing idealized body portrayals of men and women in advertising is known to have negative effects on men’s self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, but little research investigates these effects across race/ethnicity. Racial minorities tend to idealize larger bodies than Whites and so might respond differently to advertising influences. We investigated whether exposure to idealized portrayals of male and female bodies in TV advertisements has different effects on men of different race/ethnicity. Additionally, we investigated whether implicit methods reveal different results than self-reports. One hundred and sixty Asian, Hispanic, and White American male undergraduates from a university in California (USA) were randomly assigned to watch TV advertisements portraying thin women, muscular men, or watched no ads. Their implicit self-esteem was measured using the Implicit Association Test, and a questionnaire assessed explicit self-esteem, actual-ideal body discrepancy, and perception of weight-related health-risks. Exposure to portrayals of muscular men decreased actual-ideal body discrepancy in all men. Exposure to portrayals of thin women increased men's implicit but not explicit self-esteem in Asian and Hispanic men only. Both these findings are consistent with a self-enhancing role of exposure to idealized male and female bodies in advertising, which is often referred to as a “fantasy effect”. This study provides evidence that media exposure interacts with culturally local body ideals and so can produce varying effects in different racial/ethnic groups. This result could have important implications for interventions.

Empirical research has revealed a variety of differences in the communication behavior of males and females. This study addresses whether males and females think differently about communication. Imagined interactions are cognitive representations of interactive behavior in which the actor experiences the self to be engaged in communication with another. Results of a study reveal that females have more frequent and pleasant imagined interactions, they imagine more self-words, and they are more likely to imagine and recall the scene of imagined interactions than males.