UC Davis

To what extent do men objectify and dehumanize Black and White women based on shifting standards of sexuality? Across five experimental studies (2 pre-registered; N = 702), White (Studies 1-4a) and Black (Study 4b) American heterosexual men evaluated a series of images of Black and White women who were either fully- or scantily-clothed, and provided ratings of sexual objectification, animalistic dehumanization, and perceived appropriateness of the image for use in advertising. Participants responded to images of fully-clothed Black women with greater sexual objectification and animalistic dehumanization, and lower appropriateness, compared to fully-clothed White women. However, scantily-clothed White women elicited greater sexual objectification and animalistic dehumanization, and lower attributions of appropriateness compared to scantily-clothed Black women. These race interactions with clothing type support a default objectification hypothesis for Black women, and a shifting standards of sexuality hypothesis for White women. An internal meta-analysis across the five experiments further supported these two hypotheses. This research illuminates the importance of examining racialized sexual objectification in terms of distinct group-specific perceptions and attributions. Implications of this intersectional account of objectification for intergroup relations are discussed.