Abstract:

Benevolent sexism (BS) has detrimental effects on women, yet women prefer men with BS attitudes over those without. The predominant explanation for this paradox is that women respond to the superficially positive appearance of BS without being aware of its subtly harmful effects. We propose an alternative explanation drawn from evolutionary and sociocultural theories on mate preferences: Women find BS men attractive because BS attitudes and behaviors signal that a man is willing to invest. Five studies showed that women prefer men with BS attitudes (Studies 1a, 1b, and 3) and behaviors (Studies 2a and 2b), especially in mating contexts, because BS mates are perceived as willing to invest (protect, provide, and commit). Women preferred BS men despite also perceiving them as patronizing and undermining. These findings extend understanding of women’s motives for endorsing BS and suggest that women prefer BS men despite having awareness of the harmful consequences.

Essentially, this study asked women to identify a preference for two different types of male vignettes in the context of intersexual relationships and dating.

The first type of man exhibited a traditionalist, yet "benevolent," mindset toward women; "pedestalizing" women for their "purity" and "superior moral sensibility."

The second type of man (control) exhibited a purely egalitarian mindset toward women. In other words, he views both sexes completely neutrally in terms of society and sexual dynamics.

It was found that all types of women (even those with "gender equality" expectations of egalitarianism between the sexes) preferred the first type of men in terms of mate selection.

  • Drawing on evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives on human mate preferences, we offered a novel explanation for why women prefer BS men, despite its potentially harmful effects. Specifically, we proposed that attitudes and behaviors typically defined as BS reflect women’s preferences for mates who are willing to invest by being protective, providing, and committed. This benevolence as a mate-preference hypothesis suggests that women may prefer BS men, despite knowing that they can be undermining, because the desirable aspects of a man’s benevolent attitudes and behaviors outweigh the potential downsides.

  • The harmful effects of a mate’s BS attitudes are more salient for women who strongly support gender equality, but even for them, the appeal of a mate who shows willingness to invest outweighs the perceived negative effects of BS attitudes.

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