TY - JOUR
T1 - The Costs of Sexualization
T2 - Examining Viewers’ Perceptions of Sexualized Profile Owners in Online Dating
AU - Yan, Kun
AU - Terán, Larissa
AU - Gahler, Heather
AU - Salmon, Jade
AU - Dajches, Leah
AU - Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Psychological Association
PY - 2022/1/31
Y1 - 2022/1/31
N2 - Previous research has documented the social costs of sexualized Facebook profiles (Daniels, 2016, 2020; Daniels & Zurbriggen, 2016), yet little is known whether such effects exist in a critically important venue for relationship formation: online dating. Using the stereotype content model, this online experiment examined whether sexualized dating profiles, versus nonsexualized dating profiles, incur social costs (e.g., being rated low on competence, warmth, humanity, liking, social attractiveness, romantic attractiveness, and likelihood of experiencing sexual cyber dating abuse). A total of 262 heterosexual undergraduates (166 women and 96 men) participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to evaluate 2 sexualized or nonsexualized online dating candidates of the opposite sex. Results indicated that sexualized profile owners were evaluated lower on competence, liking, social attractiveness, were perceived to be at a heightened likelihood of experiencing sexual cyber dating abuse, and were considered less likely to seek long-term relationships than their nonsexualized counterparts. Some interaction effects between target gender and sexualization were also observed and discussed.
AB - Previous research has documented the social costs of sexualized Facebook profiles (Daniels, 2016, 2020; Daniels & Zurbriggen, 2016), yet little is known whether such effects exist in a critically important venue for relationship formation: online dating. Using the stereotype content model, this online experiment examined whether sexualized dating profiles, versus nonsexualized dating profiles, incur social costs (e.g., being rated low on competence, warmth, humanity, liking, social attractiveness, romantic attractiveness, and likelihood of experiencing sexual cyber dating abuse). A total of 262 heterosexual undergraduates (166 women and 96 men) participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to evaluate 2 sexualized or nonsexualized online dating candidates of the opposite sex. Results indicated that sexualized profile owners were evaluated lower on competence, liking, social attractiveness, were perceived to be at a heightened likelihood of experiencing sexual cyber dating abuse, and were considered less likely to seek long-term relationships than their nonsexualized counterparts. Some interaction effects between target gender and sexualization were also observed and discussed.
KW - Experiment
KW - Online dating
KW - Profile photos
KW - Sexualization
KW - Stereotype content model
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U2 - 10.1037/ppm0000391
DO - 10.1037/ppm0000391
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125107979
SN - 2689-6567
VL - 12
SP - 105
EP - 116
JO - Psychology of Popular Media
JF - Psychology of Popular Media
IS - 1
ER -