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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3620-3893

Date Available

4-30-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Psychology

Faculty

Jessica Bray

Faculty

Michael Bardo

Abstract

The Intergroup Sensitivity Effect (ISE) suggests criticism from outgroup members is evaluated more negatively than the same criticism coming from ingroup members. The current study used the ISE to evaluate sexism. Women (N = 400) read one of 8 blogposts where a man or woman author made hostile or benevolent comments about men or women. After reading the blogpost, participants evaluated the speaker and the post then reported intentions to confront and reporting the speaker for their prejudiced remarks. Results did not find support for the ISE. Instead, speaker evaluations were more positive when speakers were hostile targeting men. Hostile comments targeting women were rated more negatively than benevolent comments and resulted in higher reporting. Benevolent comments targeting men were rated most negative and were reported more than hostile comments towards men. I also found consistent support that speaker prejudice mediated the relationship between target gender and perceptions and intentions. Increases in perceived speaker prejudiced led to decreases in speaker evaluations, increases in negative evaluations, increased intentions to confront, and increased HR reporting for targets who were women and men. Sexism type moderated these associations when women were targets such that effects were magnified for hostile remarks. Findings show that women’s perceptions of sexism differ across who is targeted and what sexism type is occurring. The findings suggest that although women will confront any sexism towards women, they are selective when confronting sexism towards men. Implications are discussed for identifying and reducing sexism.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.209

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