From women to objects: appearance focus, target gender and perceptions of warmth, mortality and competence

<p>Most literally, objectification refers to perceiving a person as an object, and consequently, less than fullyhuman. Research on perceptions of humanness and the stereotype content model suggests that humanness islinked to perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Merging these insights with objectificationtheory, we hypothesized that focusing on a woman's, but not a man's, appearance should induceobjectification, and thus reduce perceptions of these characteristics. In three studies, females, but notmales, were perceived as less competent (Studies 2 and 3) and less warm and moral (Studies 1, 2 and 3) whenparticipants were instructed to focus on their appearance. These findings support our position and help ruleout stereotype activation as an alternative explanation to dehumanization. Further, they generalized totargets of different races, familiarity, physical attractiveness and occupational status. Implications for genderinequity and the perpetuation of objectification of women are discussed.</p>