Focusing on your appearance increases benevolent sexist beliefs in both men and women

A recent study published in 社会心理学研究 (Japanese Journal of Social Psychology) suggests that when both men and women focus on their physical appearance, they tend to become more supportive of benevolent sexism. These findings indicate that everyday situations emphasizing how we look might inadvertently reinforce traditional gender roles and preserve the societal status quo.

Benevolent sexism is a set of attitudes toward women that appear positive on the surface but are actually restrictive. It involves the belief that women are delicate creatures who should be cherished, protected, and financially supported by men. Unlike hostile sexism, which involves overt anger and antagonism toward women who challenge male power, benevolent sexism relies on traditional gender roles and rewards women only when they conform to those roles. Because it is often perceived as harmless or romantic, benevolent sexism can be particularly insidious.

Focusing on one’s appearance is defined as the situational attention people pay to how they look. This happens naturally in everyday situations, like trying on clothes or looking in a mirror. While it is a normal behavior, focusing on appearance often triggers thoughts about societal beauty standards, which are deeply intertwined with traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. When people think about their appearance, they often compare themselves to these ideals, which can lead to feelings of inadequacy or body dissatisfaction.

A 2010 study demonstrated that when women are exposed to subtle, seemingly positive sexist attitudes, they tend to focus heavily on monitoring their own appearance. Another 2010 study indicated that holding benevolent sexist attitudes is closely tied to how people evaluate their own bodies. These earlier findings established that experiencing benevolent sexism prompts people to fixate on their physical appearance.

Kunyoung Park and Makoto Numazaki at Tokyo Metropolitan University designed a new study to investigate the reverse causal link. They wanted to see if the simple act of focusing on one’s appearance could lead people to endorse benevolent sexism.

The rationale for this question draws on a concept called system justification. This is the psychological tendency for individuals to defend and rationalize existing social structures, especially when they feel uncomfortable or threatened. When people focus on their appearance and notice a gap between how they look and societal ideals, they experience psychological discomfort. To cope with this discomfort and maintain a sense of social belonging, they might lean into traditional gender roles. Endorsing a system that frames men and women as naturally different and complementary helps soothe that discomfort.

To test this idea, the researchers recruited 181 undergraduate students in Japan, consisting of 107 men and 74 women. The participants were told they were taking part in a study about online shopping behavior and personality characteristics. This cover story helped ensure the students would behave naturally without guessing the true purpose of the experiment.

In a simulated online shopping platform, the students first evaluated neutral items like food and daily goods. Then, they were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the appearance-focused condition, participants looked at photos of mannequins wearing swimsuits and chose the ones they found most flattering for themselves to wear at a pool with friends. Men were shown men’s swimwear, and women were shown women’s swimwear.

In the control condition, participants evaluated and selected sneakers for a trip to the shopping mall. The researchers chose sneakers instead of everyday clothing to avoid triggering body consciousness in the control group, providing a culturally neutral baseline comparison.

After completing the shopping task, participants filled out the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, a standardized questionnaire that measures both hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs. Participants rated their agreement with statements on a scale of 1 to 6. They also completed a scale measuring gender self-stereotyping, which assesses how much individuals attribute positive traditional masculine traits (like being brave or decisive) or feminine traits (like being warm or delicate) to themselves. The researchers also recorded participants’ body mass index to ensure body size was accounted for in the statistical models.

The researchers found that participants who imagined trying on swimsuits reported higher levels of benevolent sexism compared to those who shopped for sneakers. Among men, the average benevolent sexism score was 3.30 in the swimsuit condition, compared to 3.07 in the sneaker condition. Among women, the average score was 3.10 in the swimsuit condition, compared to 2.88 in the sneaker condition. This increase in benevolent sexist beliefs occurred regardless of the participants’ body mass index.

Focusing on appearance did not influence scores on hostile sexism. The hostile sexism scores remained similar across both the swimsuit and sneaker groups for both men and women. This supports the idea that appearance concerns are specifically tied to the complementary, romanticized gender roles promoted by benevolent sexism, rather than outward hostility toward women.

Interestingly, the appearance-focused task did not increase gender self-stereotyping. The researchers had expected that women might rate themselves as more feminine and men as more masculine after thinking about swimwear. Instead, participants in the swimsuit condition tended to rate themselves more positively across all traits in general, suggesting they used a broad strategy of self-enhancement to protect their self-image rather than leaning into specific gender stereotypes.

As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. One alternative explanation for the findings relates to heterosexual intimacy. Evaluating swimsuits might have made participants think about being evaluated by potential romantic partners. Adopting the perspective of a potential partner could make the traditional roles of benevolent sexism feel more appealing in that specific moment, rather than the shift being driven purely by a desire to justify the social system.

Another consideration is the use of sneakers as a comparison. Thinking about sneakers might bring to mind physical activity, agency, or independence. This mindset could have inadvertently lowered benevolent sexism scores in the control group. Future research could use different types of control items to clarify this dynamic.

The researchers also note that they did not directly measure the exact level of psychological discomfort participants felt when evaluating their appearance. Measuring this emotional state in future studies would help map out the exact mental steps that link appearance focus to sexist attitudes.

The study, “Focusing on one’s appearance increases benevolent sexism in women and men,” was authored by Kunyoung Park and Makoto Numazaki.