Dominance, Deference, and Disillusionment: An Empirical Comparison Between Ambivalent Sexism and the Red Pill Ideology

Some scholars have suggested that blatant expression of negative and antagonistic attitudes toward women has become rare over the last several decades. However, proliferation of the manosphere—a group of online communities that promotes misogyny and anti-feminism—suggests otherwise. Within the manosphere, The Red Pill (r/TheRedPill) particularly stands out as an intriguing subject for investigation due to its rather unique, convincing ideology concerning men and women (i.e., Red Pill ideology). The current dissertation examines whether the Red Pill ideology is perceived and functions differently from ambivalent sexism—a relatively well-established construct of sexism that has been extensively researched in social psychology. American men (Studies 1 and 2) and women (Study 2) read about an imagined interaction between themselves and a friend named Jacob at a high school reunion (Study 1) or a fictional conversation between two friends—Franklin and Jacob—at a high school reunion (Study 2), where the sexist comments made by Jacob were either in line with hostile sexism, the Red Pill ideology, or benevolent sexism. Findings suggest that the Red Pill ideology is not distinguished from hostile sexism—and might simply be “old wine in a new bottle”—but distinguishable from benevolent sexism in terms of how it is perceived. Regarding its impact on sociopolitical attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward DEI, support for Donald Trump), the Red Pill ideology is not distinguishable from both hostile and benevolent sexism. Morevoer, neoliberalism and participant gender were not significant moderators in general. This research is the first to empirically examine the effects of exposure to the Red Pill ideology (vs. ambivalent sexism), as well as the first to create a measure of the Red Pill ideology.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Timothy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Molina, Ludwin

• Social psychology
• ambivalent sexism
• perceptions of sexism
• Red Pill ideology
• sociopolitical attitudes

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:19873

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38439