Being a tough person in a tight world: Cultural tightness leads to a desire for muscularity

Both Hostile and Benevolent Sexism Predict Men's Infidelity

Infidelity has destructive effects on romantic relationships. Several idiographic characteristics or experiences in an intimate relationship have been linked to unfaithfulness. Yet, relatively little research has been paid to investigate how sexist beliefs might sabotage relationships by incurring infidelity. The present research examined the association between men's ambivalent sexism - hostile sexism and benevolent sexism - and men's infidelity as well as women's perception of the likelihood of men's infidelity. The results showed that men's hostile sexism and benevolent sexism predicted their increased infidelity (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, the indirect association between ambivalent sexism (both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism) and infidelity was through the importance placed on power in one's intimate relationship in general (Study 2). Importantly, women were unaware of benevolently sexist men's increased infidelity, such that women rated benevolently sexist men as having a lower likelihood of engaging in infidelity than hostilely sexist men and believed benevolently sexist men's infidelity level was similar to nonsexist men (Study 3). Therefore, these findings contribute to the psychology of infidelity by revealing that ambivalent sexism, both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism, are significant predictors. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Arabic versions of the Three-Item Short Form of the modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-3) and the Muscularity Bias Internalization Scale (MBIS)

BACKGROUND

There is a lack of psychometrically sound measures to assess internalized weight and muscularity biases among Arabic-speaking people. To fill this gap, we sought to investigate the psychometric properties of Arabic translations of the Three-Item Short Form of the Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-3) and the Muscularity Bias Internalization Scale (MBIS) in a sample of community adults.

METHODS

A total of 402 Lebanese citizens and residents enrolled in this cross-sectional study (mean age: 24.46 years (SD = 6.60); 55.2% females). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal-axis factoring and oblimin rotation to estimate parameters and the parallel analysis to determine the number of factors. CFA was conducted using the weighted least square mean and variance adjusted estimator which was recommended for ordinal CFA.

RESULTS

An Exploratory Factor Analysis of the WBIS-3 resulted in a robust single-factor solution for the three items. An examination of the factorial structure of the MBIS revealed a two-factor structure, which showed adequate model fit. We obtained excellent internal consistency as indicated by McDonald's ω coefficients of .87 for the WBIS-3 total score and ranging between .92 and .95 for the MBIS two factor scores. Cross-sex invariance of the MBIS was confirmed at the configural, metric, and scalar levels. Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the WBIS-3 and MBIS. Divergent and concurrent validity were approved by showing small to medium correlations between MBIS/WBIS-3 scores and muscle dysmorphia, disordered eating symptoms, and body image concerns.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that the Arabic versions of the WBIS-3 and MBIS are suitable for use in Arabic-speaking adults.

We Need Tough Brothers and Sisters in a Tight World: Cultural Tightness Leads to a Preference for Dominant and Muscular Leaders

Cultural tightness is characterized by strong norms and harsh punishments for deviant behaviors. We hypothesized that followers in tight (vs. loose) cultures would more strongly prefer muscular leaders. This hypothesis was confirmed across seven studies (N = 1,615) employing samples from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. Using actual political leaders, we demonstrated that the tighter the state's culture was, the more muscular the elected governor was (Study 1). Temporarily situating participants in a tight (vs. loose) culture made them select a leader higher on muscularity but not on body fat, and the effects obtained occurred for both male and female leaders (Studies 2-3B). In addition, we demonstrated the mediating role of authoritarianism and a preference for a dominant leadership in this process (Studies 4-5B). These results demonstrate the importance of considering the interface between culture and the physical appearance of leaders.

High Social Mobility Leads to Delayed Reproduction

Many important family decisions, such as when to have offspring, essentially manifest different life history strategies, ranging from slow to fast ones. The current research examined how one critical societal factor, social mobility (i.e., the shift of socioeconomic status in a society), may contribute to such slow (vs. fast) life history strategies. With four multi-method studies, including archival data at the national level, a large-sample survey (N = 6787), and experimental studies (N = 497), we found that a high level of social mobility predicted and resulted in delayed reproduction. Specifically, a high level of social mobility, indexed by both objective reality and subjective perception, predicted individuals' positive future expectations. This further leads them to focus on long-term goals and foster a slow life history strategy, i.e., preferring delayed reproduction. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Development of the Cultural Tightness-Looseness Orientation Scale for College Students

Background

"The cultural tightness-looseness orientation of college students", which involves college students' cognition about tolerance for non-learning-behavior in class, strength of learning-behavior norms in class, and strength of social norms in the generalized macro-context, offers a new perspective to explain college students' psychology and behavior and could effectively promote their all-round development. However, there is severely lack of a reliable and valid instrument. Hence, we seek to develop the Cultural Tightness-Looseness Orientation Scale for College Students (CTLOS-S) in the Chinese context.

Methods

We firstly pooled the initial 17 measuring items of CTLOS-S through literature review and the open-ended interview. After conducting questionnaire survey among 264 college students using the initial scale, we did a series of reliability and validity tests to get the formal CTLOS-S, based on which we further administered questionnaire survey among 755 college students to check its reliability, construct validity, criterion validity, content validity, and across-gender invariance.

Results

The formal CTLOS-S contains 7-item subscale of tolerance orientation for non-learning-behavior in class, 4-item subscale of strength orientation of learning-behavior norms in class, and 3-item subscale of strength orientation of social norms in the generalized macro-context. The testing results of the second-stage questionnaire survey data (N = 755) demonstrate that the reliability coefficients of CTLOS-S and its three subscales are 0.85, 0.85, 0.83, and 0.76 separately, the internal 3-factor structure validity of CTLOS-S is satisfactorily acceptable with χ ²(74) = 318.76, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.06, and SRMR = 0.04, and the content validity and criterion validity are satisfactory as the total score of CTLOS-S is positively correlated with each score of its three subscales and the total score of learning engagement scale. Besides, the 3-factor structure of CTLOS-S is invariant across gender.

Conclusion

The 14-item CTLOS-S we develop is a reliable and valid instrument for researchers to conduct quantitative studies on college students' cultural tightness-looseness orientation.

Personal Relative Deprivation Increases Men's (but Not Women's) Hostile Sexism: The Mediating Role of Sense of Control

Hostile sexism is a blatant and explicit form of sexism consisting of antagonistic attitudes toward women. We hypothesized that men's personal relative deprivation, a subjectively perceived disadvantage, would predict their hostile sexism toward women. In addition, we expected that, if this effect occurs, a sense of control would act as a mediator. Five studies ( N = 1352) confirmed these hypotheses. Study 1 showed that personal relative deprivation predicted hostile sexism only for men, but not for women among Chinese college students. In addition, we observed the effect of personal relative deprivation only on hostile sexism, but not on benevolent sexism. Study 2, which employed participants from the United States, directly replicated the findings of Study 1. Studies 3 and 4 further showed that a sense of control acted as a mediator in this process. As such, increased hostile sexism attitude (Study 3) and hostile sexism behavior (Study 4) predicted by personal relative deprivation could result from a reduced sense of control. Study 5 further provided causal evidence that a temporarily induced state of personal relative deprivation resulted in a higher level of hostile sexism via a reduced sense of control. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for relative deprivation, gender inequality, and interventions.

Threatened humanity in a tight world: Cultural tightness results in self-objectification

Self-objectification can be considered as a specific kind of self-dehumanization that consists of a perception of oneself as more instrument-like than human-like and a decreased self-attribution of mental states. Self-objectification is commonly observed, and its contributing factors need to be better understood. In the present research, we examined whether cultural tightness, which entails strong social norms and punishments for deviant behaviors, is an antecedent to self-objectification. Our hypotheses were confirmed by four studies, involving quasi-experiments and fully controlled experiments ( N = 2,693). In particular, Chinese college students living in a region with a tight culture (compared to a loose culture, Study 1), American employees working in an industry with a tight corporate culture (compared to a loose culture, Study 2), American participants who were induced to support cultural tightness (vs. cultural looseness, Study 3), and those who were situated in a simulated tight culture (vs. a loose culture, Study 4) all showed increased levels of self-objectification. As such, they acknowledged their personhood less and focused more on their instrumentality. Implications are discussed.

The powerful self: How social power and gender influence face perception

While ample evidence supports an association between power and dominance, little is still known about how temporary experiences of power influence the way people come to see themselves and others. The present research investigates the effect of social power on self- and other-face recognition, and examines whether gender modulates the direction of this effect. Male and female participants were induced to feel either powerful or powerless and had to recognize their own face and those of same-sex strangers from a series of images ranging from a dominant to a submissive version of the original. Results showed that males more frequently chose a dominant self-image under high power, whereas females selected a submissive self-image under low power. When presented with faces of same-sex targets female participants relied on low-power features (i.e., submissiveness) of the self in the perception of others (assimilation effect), whereas male participants more often selected a dominant image of strangers when feeling powerless (constrast effect). The effects of power did not extend to more deliberate judgments of dominance and likability, suggesting that respective biases in face recollection operated at an implicit level. This research underscores the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of power and related gender gaps in power attainment.