A late update from the ISPP conference in Lisboa in July, 2019. We presented two studies. Hanna and Emma presented work on gender stereotypes (see abstract below). Zach also presented a poster on the Incel movement (see abstract below).
Gender stereotypes, compensatory behavior and legislative speechmaking
Gender stereotypes are mental representations that both describe and prescribe what roles and tasks women and men should engage in. When roles or behavior and gender are incongruent, individuals are sanctioned (e.g. Eagly & Wood 2012). Because leadership traditionally is associated with masculinity, female political leaders break gender norms and are likely to face bias and criticism. To achieve credibility and acceptance, female leaders can compensate their behavior by adapting how they speak. Previous comparative research has shown that female representatives speak less in parliament than their male counterparts, and that they speak mainly in policy areas that can be described as “feminine”, such as health, education or welfare policy (e.g. Bäck and Debus 2018). However, we know relatively little about how male and female representatives engage in legislative debates in terms of “speaking style”. This paper aims to fill this gap. Drawing on Carli (1990), we hypothesize that female members of parliament (MPs) will speak more tentatively, especially when taking part in debates dealing with more “masculine” topics. Using computerized text analysis (LIWC, e.g. Tausczik & Pennebaker 2010), we analyze the emotional content of all speeches made in the Swedish Riksdag during five terms. Controlling for leadership positions, we find that female MPs express more anxiety in their speeches as compared to men, and that their anxiety is especially high when debates focus on “masculine” policy areas. We interpret such anxiety as “tentativeness”, which suggests that female MPs compensate their speaking behavior to avoid negative sanctions.
In search of ‘incels’: Does social exclusion by women predict right wing authoritarianism and misogynistic attitudes in men?
‘Incels’ (involuntary celibates) are individuals, mainly men, who concern themselves with their inability to obtain, or sustain, a relationship with a member of the opposite sex (Ging, 2017). A loosely organized community with several noticeable subcultures, incels have carved out a notable niche for themselves in the so-called ‘manosphere’, an online domain cohabitated by the alt-right, pick-up artists, and men’s rights activists. This subculture has also seen publicity in the media, beginning with the Isla Vista killings committed by Elliot Rodger in 2014, and in several violent incidents since then. Social exclusion has been a recurring issue shared by the perpetrators (Williams, 2018). The present study seeks to explore the core problem that seems to lie at the heart of inceldom: a strong feeling of exclusion by the opposite sex. Male participants from the United States took part in an online study in which an artificial social media environment was simulated (Levordashka, Ruff, Kraaijeveld, Lueckmann, & Williams, 2014). In this environment, they presented profiles of themselves and were led to believe they would be interacting with other people online. Social exclusion was then manipulated by the number of ‘likes’ the participant’s profile received. Afterwards, participants were measured on right-wing authoritarianism and misogyny. The results support the hypothesis that exclusion by the opposite sex may predict support for right-wing authoritarianism, and misogynistic attitudes. As the first study to take a quantitative experimental approach, the results are significant in helping to understand what appears to be an increasingly dangerous problem for society.
