From Flirting to F*cking: Examining the Robustness of the Precarious Sexuality Effect.

Men, versus women, face more doubts about their heterosexuality based on a single same-gender sexual experience, a phenomenon known as the precarious sexuality effect. This phenomenon has thus far only been examined with sexually explicit same-gender acts (e.g., kissing, oral sex). Here, we conducted secondary data analyses of five large datasets of US adults (total N = 9770) to examine the replicability and robustness of the precarious sexuality effect across a range of same-gender acts varying in sexual explicitness. Using cross-classified hierarchical linear modeling, we replicated the precarious sexuality effect across all samples and demonstrated-in preregistered exploratory and confirmatory tests-that this effect was moderated by sexual explicitness. Consistent with our predictions, same-gender acts that were merely flirtatious (e.g., blowing a kiss) elicited stronger precarious sexuality (i.e., target gender) effects than same-gender acts that were explicitly sexual (e.g., oral sex), presumably because the former acts are more ambiguous and thereby allow more room for interpretation. Further, we found no consistent evidence that the precarious sexuality effect was moderated by perceiver characteristics including gender, sexual orientation, age, race, gender role beliefs, religiosity, or political orientation. Discussion considers possible explanations for the precarious sexuality effect and identifies important avenues for future research.

Heterosexual People's Reactions to Same-Sex Romantic or Sexual Overtures: The Role of Attitudes About Sexual Orientation and Gender.

Why do some heterosexual people react in a negative manner when pondering or experiencing romantic or sexual overtures from persons of their same-sex, whereas other heterosexual people react more positively? To answer this question, this cross-sectional, correlational study examined individual difference predictors of heterosexual people's responses to romantic or sexual overtures from same-sex persons. Our sample comprised 306 men and 307 women, ages 18-35 years, who were recruited from Mechanical Turk and identified as cisgender and heterosexual. Our hypotheses were premised on the theoretical construct of reactive group distinctiveness. Specifically, we explored predictors of heterosexual individuals' negative perceptions of same-sex overtures. We found that more negative reactions to same-sex overtures were uniquely predicted by old-fashioned sexual prejudice, modern sexual prejudice, and desire to be perceived as gender conforming, via the mediators of social distance from same-sex sexual minority individuals and desire to be perceived as heterosexual. Gender moderated these relationships inconsistently. These findings indicate that two classes of individual differences-sexual prejudice and gender conforming reputation desire-are uniquely associated with heterosexual persons' reactions to overtures from same-sex persons. We explain how these findings evidence the process of reactive group distinctiveness.

Differential impact of upward and downward comparisons on diverse women's disordered eating behaviors and body image.

OBJECTIVE: Etiological models of disordered eating are limited in their consideration of racial/ethnic differences in risk factors. Appearance comparisons are consistent predictors of disordered eating outcomes, but research predominantly examines these associations among White women and overlooks the potential differential impact of upward (comparing to someone perceived as better off) versus downward comparisons (comparing to someone perceived as worse off). This study investigated race/ethnicity as a moderator of the associations between upward and downward appearance comparisons and disordered eating outcomes and body satisfaction of young adult women. METHOD: Measures of upward and downward appearance comparisons, body satisfaction, and disordered eating were administered to 1,014 young adult women. A multiple group (by race/ethnicity) path analysis was estimated using maximum likelihood estimation for each disordered eating and body satisfaction outcome, controlling for age and BMI. RESULTS: Upward comparisons were associated with higher levels of disordered eating behaviors and lower body satisfaction for women of all racial/ethnic groups. Downward appearance comparisons emerged as detrimental for Hispanic/Latina women, but were protective for Asian and White women. DISCUSSION: Findings challenge the belief that appearance comparisons impact all women similarly and that downward comparisons are universally protective, a position often promulgated by clinical treatment approaches. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:519-523).

A dangerous boomerang: Injunctive norms, hostile sexist attitudes, and male-to-female sexual aggression.

This study examined the interactive effects of injunctive norm exposure and hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes on men's sexually aggressive responses during a behavioral analogue paradigm in which they interacted online with a bogus female partner. Heterosexual adult men (n = 201), recruited from an online sample, read fictional information regarding other men's approval of misogynistic, paternalistic, or egalitarian treatment of women, or non-gender-relevant control information. Through a media preference survey, men then learned that their female partner disliked sexual content in films, after which they had an opportunity to send her up to 120 sec' worth of either a sexually explicit or nonsexual film clip. Validating the online sexual aggression paradigm, men with a 1-year history of sexual assault exhibited more sexually aggressive responding during the film selection paradigm. Moreover, exposure to injunctive norm information produced a boomerang effect, such that men high in hostile sexist attitudes showed an increase in sexual aggression when confronted with paternalism and gender equality norms. Conversely, exposure to paternalism and gender equality norms suppressed the otherwise protective function of high benevolent sexism in reducing men's sexually aggressive tendencies. The implications of these results for social norms interventions are discussed.

Gaining masculine power through guns? The impact of masculinity threat on attitudes toward guns.

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States and elsewhere and more so among men than women. We conducted an experiment to examine if men whose masculinity was threatened are more attracted to guns than non-threatened men, presumably to compensate for the threat. After completing a gender knowledge test, men (N = 168) randomly received either false masculinity threatening (experimental condition) or masculinity affirming (control condition) feedback. Subsequently, we measured men's attitudes toward guns and their choice of a gun-range voucher. Men whose masculinity was threatened (vs. affirmed) showed more positive attitudes toward guns and were more likely to choose the voucher. Both effects were statistically significant when the whole sample was analyzed and when very strict exclusion criteria were applied. However, when data exclusions were based on a suspicion check, effects were statistically significant only when a covariate was included (i.e., social dominance orientation, patriotism, or experience with guns). We discuss reasons for this mixed evidence, including the possibility that suspicion regarding the masculinity feedback could itself be a compensatory reaction to threat.

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: a useful tool for assessing pathological narcissism? Evidence from patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) has dominated research on narcissism in the field of social and personality psychology. Surprisingly, it is unclear whether the NPI is useful for identifying pathological narcissism in patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). The goal of this study was to close this research gap. We used an extreme-group approach by including NPD patients and healthy controls and comparing their narcissism scores. We further investigated whether explicit self-esteem (assessed with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) suppressed the relationship between group membership and NPI narcissism. According to our results, NPD patients do not score higher on the NPI in comparison to healthy controls. Analysis of indirect effects revealed that differences in NPI scores are suppressed by NPD patients' low self-esteem. Our results indicate that the NPI is not a valid indicator of NPD, unless one controls for self-esteem. Implications for future research are discussed.

A truly responsive listener is a self-verifying listener.

We propose that accounts of responsiveness and responsive listening are tailored for people with positive self-views (high self-esteem, positive self-concepts). Researchers define responsiveness, in part, as valuing and appreciating a partners' attributes, accomplishments, and worldview. This emphasis on being positively validated overlooks the dangers of feeling overvalued, which are especially salient to those with low self-esteem and negative self-views. Self-verification motives lead people to feel closest to partners who see them as they see themselves. Responsiveness and positive validation may increase closeness among those with positive self-views, but these processes may backfire for those with negative self-views. We describe the challenges such individuals face in eliciting self-verification from partners and suggest ways of improving responsiveness to those with negative self-views.

The Roles of Gender and Sexual Orientation in Predicting Reactions to Suitors: Revealing Intersectional Complexities.

Relatively little is known about how gender and sexual orientation intersect to predict young adults' responses to unwanted romantic and sexual overtures from men and women suitors. To better understand these potential differences, and explore possible mechanisms that explain them, this pre-registered study used an online questionnaire to assess reactions to both hypothetical and recalled suitors among a sample of 855 cisgender heterosexual and gay young adults (18-35) from the United States. Results revealed that gay women and heterosexual men reported the most negative hypothetical reactions to men (versus women) suitors, while gay women, heterosexual men, and heterosexual women all recalled more negative reactions to men than women suitors. Gay men recalled relatively benign reactions to suitors of both genders. A desire to be seen as one's true orientation was a mediating factor for both gay women's and heterosexual men's negative reactions to men suitors. These findings and their potential explanations highlight the complexity of how gender and sexual orientation intersect to shape responses to romantic and sexual overtures from men and women suitors.

Behind the Blackpill: Self-Verification and Identity Fusion Predict Endorsement of Violence Against Women Among Self-Identified Incels.

Incels (involuntary celibates) have advocated for and even enacted violence against women. We explored two mechanisms that may underly incels' actions: identity fusion and self-verification. Study 1 (n = 155) revealed stronger identity fusion (deep alignment) with the ingroup among men active in online incel communities compared to men active in other male-dominated groups. Study 2 (n = 113) showed that feeling self-verified by other incels predicted fusion with incels; fusion, in turn, predicted endorsement of past and future violence toward women. Study 3 (n = 283; preregistered) replicated the indirect effects from Study 2 and extended them by linking fusion to online harassment of women. All indirect effects were particularly strong among self-identified incels high in narcissism. We discuss the synergistic links between self-verification and identity fusion in fostering extreme behaviors and identify directions for future research.

Emotions in sexual morality: testing the separate elicitors of anger and disgust.

Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.

Curvilinear Sexism and Its Links to Men's Perceived Mate Value.

We tested the novel hypothesis that men lower in status-linked variables-that is, subjective social status and perceived mate value-are relatively disinclined to offset their high hostile sexism with high benevolent sexism. Findings revealed that mate value, but not social status, moderates the hostile-benevolent sexism link among men: Whereas men high in perceived mate value endorse hostile and benevolent sexism linearly across the attitude range, men low in mate value show curvilinear sexism, characterized by declining benevolence as hostility increases above the midpoint. Study 1 (N = 15,205) establishes the curvilinear sexism effect and shows that it is stronger among men than women. Studies 2 (N = 328) and 3 (N = 471) show that the curve is stronger among men low versus high in perceived mate value, and especially if they lack a serious relationship partner (Study 3). Discussion considers the relevance of these findings for understanding misogyny.

Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger-not weaker-in its wake.

Essentialist Beliefs and Sexual Prejudice Toward Feminine Gay Men.

We propose that feminine gay men are targets of essentialist beliefs that cast them as less natural and more entitative than masculine gay men, and that this pattern of low-naturalness/high-entitativity beliefs fuels increased sexual prejudice toward, and discomfort with, feminine gay men. Data from two studies support these hypotheses. In Study 1, feminine versus masculine gay men were rated lower in naturalness and higher in entitativity, while masculine versus feminine lesbians did not elicit this pattern of beliefs. Study 2 replicated the effects of gay men's gender expression on essentialist beliefs, and demonstrated that feminine gay men arouse more prejudice and discomfort than masculine gay men because they are perceived as socially constructed (low in naturalness) and deeply homogeneous (high in entitativity). Discussion considers the implications of these findings for reducing the stigma of femininity in gay men and outlines directions for future research.

Precarious manhood and displays of physical aggression.

The results of three experiments demonstrate that physically aggressive displays are part of men's cultural script for restoring threatened gender status. In Studies 1 and 2, challenges to men's gender status elicited heightened physically aggressive displays, including punching a pad with greater force and selecting an aggressive boxing activity over a nonaggressive puzzle activity. Study 3 established that a public display of aggressive readiness reduced men's anxiety-related cognitions in the wake of a gender threat. This suggests that aggressive displays may function to downregulate negative affect when manhood has been threatened. The discussion considers past research on gender and physical aggression in light of the authors' thesis that manhood, relative to womanhood, is culturally defined as a precarious status that must be actively, even aggressively, defended.

Precarious manhood.

The authors report 5 studies that demonstrate that manhood, in contrast to womanhood, is seen as a precarious state requiring continual social proof and validation. Because of this precariousness, they argue that men feel especially threatened by challenges to their masculinity. Certain male-typed behaviors, such as physical aggression, may result from this anxiety. Studies 1-3 document a robust belief in (a) the precarious nature of manhood relative to womanhood and (b) the idea that manhood is defined more by social proof than by biological markers. Study 4 demonstrates that when the precarious nature of manhood is made salient through feedback indicating gender-atypical performance, men experience heightened feelings of threat, whereas similar negative gender feedback has no effect on women. Study 5 suggests that threatening manhood (but not womanhood) activates physically aggressive thoughts.

Gender-Atypical Mental Illness as Male Gender Threat.

The present study examined whether men view gender-atypical (i.e., feminine) psychological disorders as threats to their gender status. Men and women (N = 355) rated their expectations of gender status loss, feelings of distress, and help-seeking intentions in response to 10 different stereotypically masculine and feminine psychological disorders. Men as compared to women expected greater gender status loss for, and reported more distress to, gender-atypical versus gender-typical disorders. Expectations of gender status loss partially mediated the link between participant gender and distress at the thought of gender-atypical disorders. These findings suggest that feminine disorders pose more powerful gender status threats for men than masculine disorders do and that men's expectations of gender status loss for feminine disorders drive their negative reactions to these mental illnesses. The discussion emphasizes the importance of considering the gender-typicality of disorders, and the implications of these findings for clinical interventions.

Role rigidity: a problem of identity misclassification?

When nonstigmatized individuals enact certain role-violating behaviors, they risk becoming "falsely accused deviants" (H. S. Becker, 1963, p. 20). For instance, when heterosexual men perform stereotypically feminine behaviors, they are liable to get misclassified as homosexual. Findings presented here reveal that expectations of identity misclassification fuel nonstigmatized individuals' negative reactions to role violations (Studies 1-2) and that using a disclaimer--that is, informing their audience of their nonstigmatized identity--assuages people's discomfort during a role-violating behavior (Studies 3-4). Moreover, when not concerned about being misclassified, nonstigmatized individuals benefit psychologically from the enactment of a challenging role violation (Study 4). Discussion considers the nature of the threat that misclassified role violators face and compares the plight of the falsely accused deviant to that of the truly stigmatized individual.

Flash fire and slow burn: women's cardiovascular reactivity and recovery following hostile and benevolent sexism.

Women's cardiovascular responses to sexist treatment are documented, but researchers have yet to consider these responses separately as a function of sexism type (hostile vs. benevolent). This study demonstrates distinct effects of hostile and benevolent sexism for women's cardiovascular responses that indicate increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Female participants performed a demanding insight task after exposure to a male researcher who offered them a hostilely sexist, benevolently sexist, or nonsexist comment. Women displayed heightened cardiovascular reactivity (increases from baseline) during the task following hostile sexism, and they displayed impaired cardiovascular recovery (return to baseline after the task) following benevolent sexism. The effects seen in the hostile condition were mediated by self-reported anger. These findings indicate that women's affective responses to hostile and benevolent sexism differ but that exposure to both forms of sexism may have negative cardiovascular consequences.

Self-esteem maintenance processes: why low self-esteem may be resistant to change.

If most people desire to maximize feelings of self-worth, how do we explain the persistence of low self-esteem? Results from four studies suggest that people with low self-esteem may be less likely to accept positive feedback from themselves than from an outside source but equally likely to accept negative feedback from the self and an outsider. When the self was the source of positive feedback, people high, but not low, in self-esteem incorporated the feedback into their self-views; in contrast, when positive feedback came from a knowledgeable external source, both high and low self-esteem people accepted it. Finally, when self-generated feedback was negative, participants low in self-esteem accepted it. The authors discuss how these findings shed light on the maintenance of low self-esteem.

Gender dichotomization at the level of ingroup identity: what it is, and why men use it more than women.

In 5 studies (N = 756), we show that men's relative to women's gender ingroup identities are characterized by greater levels of gender dichotomization, a tendency to distance masculine from feminine traits. We demonstrate further that men's gender dichotomization is motivated, in part, by a need to eschew femininity from their ingroup identity to bolster a precarious gender status. Studies 1-3 establish and replicate the basic effect, and rule out alternative explanations (positivity, projection, status striving) for men's tendency to dichotomize more than women. Studies 4 and 5 demonstrate the motivated nature of gender dichotomization by establishing that men, but not women, dichotomize more strenuously when reminded of the precariousness of their gender status, and report stronger motivation to restore their gender status upon learning that their ingroup is becoming less dichotomized. Across 3 studies, strength of identification with their gender group moderates men's dichotomization tendencies. Discussion considers the implications of these findings for understanding the precarious nature of manhood and identifies practical applications of gender dichotomization in the interpersonal realm.