Abstract

Research suggests that sexist humor creates a context that justifies the expression of prejudice against women. The present research investigates whether sexist humor has broader social consequences related to societal sexism. An experiment supported our hypothesis that men higher in hostile sexist attitudes express beliefs that justify the gender status-quo to a greater degree after exposure to sexist humor versus neutral humor or non-humorous sexist material. Specifically, male participants higher in hostile sexism reported greater acceptance of current gender relations and greater acceptance of societal devaluation of women after reading sexist jokes than after reading neutral (nonsexist) jokes or non-humorous sexist material.