Smiles Can Reveal Chauvinists

You may get bowled over by his smiles, but beware. A smile is not always an indication of his goodwill.

In a new study by Jin Goh and Judith Hall of Northeastern University in the US, you can understand how sexism influences relationships.

Goh and Hall were keen to probe into the word choices, attitudes and smiles of men, which will show the type of sexism they can show while setting up relationships with women. They checked out the verbal as well as nonverbal expressions of benevolent and hostile sexism through various relationships between the genders, and unraveled the ways in which sexist beliefs are expressed, according to huffingtonpost.

The scientists looked carefully at the relationships struck among 27 pairs of American undergraduate boys and girls. They watched and taped them playing trivia game and then chatted together. Their interaction was documented, including their impressions as well as certain nonverbal cues such as smiles. A word count software was used to analyze the content.

Although over the past six decades in the United States, sexism has been thought to have decreased, it is not difficult to find them. According to experts, gender discrimination can be "both hostile and benevolent," according to redorbit. It explains that hostile sexism shows feelings of "antipathy or dislike of women," and is expressed as dominating as well as derogatory in their attempt to maintain power. On the other hand, benevolent sexism is not so negative, but looks paternalistic, with a chivalrous and positive view of women. However, such men with this kind of well-intentioned sexism think of women as "warm and pure yet helpless, incompetent and in need of men's protection."

Hence, the conclusions have seemed predictable. Those men who were more hostile smiled less and were less approachable or friendly. Other men who expressed "benevolent sexism" were also "more approachable, warmer, friendlier and more likely to smile." Their language had "positive emotional words" and exhibited patience even as they waited for women to answer trivial questions.

"While many people are sensitive to sexist verbal offenses, they may not readily associate sexism with warmth and friendliness," argues Goh. "Unless sexism is understood as having both hostile and benevolent properties, the insidious nature of benevolent sexism will continue to be one of the driving forces behind gender inequality in our society."

According to Hall, a man who expresses benevolent sexism was like a wolf in sheep's clothing, showing support for gender inequality. Due to their expressions of "good faith" the women may accept the status quo, as sexism appears to be "welcoming, appealing, and harmless."

Men's beliefs were detected through a test called the Ambivalent Sexism Index. It checked how men agreed with statements such as "women are too easily offended", which is an example of hostile sexism, and "a good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man", which is an example of benevolent sexism. Statements that suggested equality, like "women shouldn't necessarily be rescued before men during a disaster" gave negative scores, according to TheWashingtonPost.

The study is published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.