Does Drinking Matter? Investigation of the effects that drinking and gender have on perceptions of dehumanization, objectification, and sexual availability
Anastasia Karapanagou (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Heather Spencer (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Rachel Chan (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), & Jeanine Skorinko (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Thank you for sharing your research and presenting at NEPA!
You said that females were more objectified but not dehumanized why do you think that is?
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for your question! We wondered the same thing as we were analyzing, as we expected females to be dehumanized more. Perhaps it is that participants were only supplied with a picture and a status update of Sam. Since objectification is being defined as being reduced to one’s body, it may be easier for a participant to objectify someone when most of the information they are given is an image of Sam’s body/face coupled with the drunk/sober condition. On the other hand, dehumanization is being defined as eliminating uniquely human traits, which may be harder to do if you have less context into how Sam is acting or what Sam is normally like. In the conditions where Sam (female and male) is drunk, participants could project onto Sam what those behaviors might be and therefore have more ability to eliminate those uniquely human behaviors.