Regulatory focus theory

Feeling

Human sexuality

Creativity

Philosophy

Neuroscience

Social psychology

Gender studies

Developmental psychology

Anthropology

Objectification

Dehumanization

Aesthetics

Psychology

Epistemology

Sexualization

Sociology

Beauty

Harm

Perception

Narcissism

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Women are objectified through overt sexualization and through a focus on physical appearance, but empirical research has not yet made this distinction. In three studies, we found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that although both forms of objectification strip women of their humanness, there are unique dehumanizing signatures associated with each. When women were objectified by a focus on their sexual features or functions ( sexual objectification), they were perceived as lacking uniquely human attributes (i.e., animalistic dehumanization). Conversely, when women were objectified by an emphasis on their beauty or physical appearance ( appearance-focused objectification), they were perceived as lacking human nature (i.e., mechanistic dehumanization). In Study 3, we also examined an outcome associated with women’s risk of harm and found that mechanistic dehumanization, in response to appearance-focused objectification, uniquely promoted the perception that a woman was less capable of feeling pain. Implications for objectification research are discussed.

Women as Animals, Women as Objects: Evidence for Two Forms of Objectification