Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Program Name/Specialization

Social Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Mindi D. Foster

Advisor Role

Advisor

Abstract

Confronting sexism elicits social costs like name-calling (Mendes et al., 2018) and anticipating these costs inhibits confrontation (Good et al., 2012). But taking collective action can also improve women’s wellbeing and reduce negative emotion (Foster, 2015). How women anticipate their own emotions in response to social cost may be a predictor of action. However, it is not yet known how women anticipate taking action will make them feel, and how perceived costs relate to these predictions and action intentions. The present thesis integrates two previously distinct literatures, affective forecasting (Gilbert et al., 1998) and collective action motivation to assess the potential link.

In Studies 1 and 2, participants imagined engaging in collective action against sexism, and then answered open and closed-ended questions about how taking action would make them feel, and about perceived social costs of taking action. A content analysis of open-text comments provided insight into women’s beliefs about how collective action will make them feel. Parallel mediation models showed that in Study 1 (but not Study 2), higher perceived social cost was associated with more negative affective forecasts, and in turn, lower intentions to engage in collective action.

To address questions of causality in Studies 1 and 2, in Studies 3 and 4, participants were asked to create a Tweet about sexism, and then received one of three (fabricated) responses to their Tweet, ostensibly generated by an algorithm that searched Twitter for common responses to Tweets against sexism. The response was either supportive (social benefit), neutral (control), or disparaging (social cost). Participants rated how they thought they would feel if they received that response, both about the fact that they took action, and about the reply they received. Results suggest that the social cost condition, compared to the social benefit condition, increased negative affective forecasts and decreased positive affective forecasts about taking action, and decreased positive affective forecasts about the reply, which in turn, reduced social media action intentions.

Future research should consider how to modify affective forecasts to increase women’s confrontation of sexism, and how to maintain its wellbeing benefits in the face of social costs.

Convocation Year

2025

Convocation Season

Spring

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