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ScienceDaily, November 10, 2011
For both men and women, wearing
revealing attire causes them to be seen as more sensitive but less competent,
says a new study by University of Maryland psychologist Kurt Gray and
colleagues from Yale and Northeastern University.
In
an article published Nov. 10 in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, the
researchers write that it would be absurd to think people's mental capacities
fundamentally change when they remove clothing. "In six studies, however,
we show that taking off a sweater-or otherwise revealing flesh-can
significantly change the way a mind is perceived."
Past
research, feminist theory and parental admonishments all have long suggested
that when men see a woman wearing little or nothing, they focus on her body and
think less of her mind. The new findings by Gray, et al. both expand and change
our understanding of how paying attention to someone's body can alter how both
men and women view both women and men.
"An
important thing about our study is that, unlike much previous research, ours
applies to both sexes. It also calls into question the nature of
objectification because people without clothes are not seen as mindless
objects, but they are instead attributed a different kind of mind," says
UMD's Gray.
"We
also show that this effect can happen even without the removal of clothes.
Simply focusing on someone's attractiveness, in essence concentrating on their
body rather than their mind, makes you see him or her as less of an agent
[someone who acts and plans] and more of an experiencer."
Objectification
vs. Two Kinds of Mind
Traditional
research and theories on objectification suggest that we see the mind of others
on a continuum between the full mind of a normal human and the mindlessness of
an inanimate object. The idea of objectification is that looking at someone in
a sexual context-such as in pornography-leads people to focus on physical
characteristics, turning them into an object without a mind or moral status.
However,
recent findings indicate that rather than looking at others on a continuum from
object to human, we see others as having two aspects of mind: agency and
experience. Agency is the capacity to act, plan and exert self-control, whereas
experience is the capacity to feel pain, pleasure and emotions. Various factors
-- including the amount of skin shown -- can shift which type of mind we see in
another person.
In
multiple experiments, the researchers found further support for the two kinds
of mind view. When men and women in the study focused on someone's body,
perceptions of agency (self-control and action) were reduced, and perceptions
of experience (emotion and sensation) were increased. Gray and colleagues
suggest that this effect occurs because people unconsciously think of minds and
bodies as distinct, or even opposite, with the capacity to act and plan tied to
the "mind" and the ability to experience or feel tied to the body.
According
to Gray, their findings indicate that the change in perception that results
from showing skin is not all bad. "A focus on the body, and the increased
perception of sensitivity and emotion it elicits might be good for lovers in
the bedroom," he says.
Their
study also found that a body focus can actually increase moral standing.
Although those wearing little or no clothes -- or otherwise represented as a
body -- were seen to be less morally responsible, they also were seen to be
more sensitive to harm and hence deserving of more protection. "Others
appear to be less inclined to harm people with bare skin and more inclined to
protect them. In one experiment, for example, people viewing male subjects with
their shirts off were less inclined to give those subjects uncomfortable
electric shocks than when the men had their shirts on.," Gray says.
However,
Gray and his coauthors note that in work or academic contexts, where people are
primarily evaluated on their capacity to plan and act, a body focus clearly has
negative effects. Seeing someone as a body strips him or her of competence and
leadership, potentially impacting job evaluations. "Even more than robbing
someone of agency, the increased experience that may accompany body perceptions
may lead those who are characterized in terms of their bodies to be seen as
more reactive and emotional, traits that may also serve to work against career
advancement," they write.
Even the positive aspects of a body focus, such as an
increased desire to protect from harm, can be ultimately harmful, the authors
say, pointing to the "benevolent sexism" common in the United States
in the 1950s, in which men oppressed women under the guise of protecting them.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Maryland.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Kurt Gray, Joshua Knobe, Mark Sheskin, Paul Bloom, Lisa Feldman Barrett. More than a body: Mind perception and the nature of objectification.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011; DOI: 10.1037/a0025883
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