Is She Angry? (Sexually Desirable) Women "See" Anger on Female Faces

Intrasexual conflict may pose unique challenges for women. Whereas men's aggression tends to be physical and direct, women's tends to be relational and indirect, particularly when directed toward other women. Moreover, women's expressions of anger are often suppressed, perhaps particularly when other women are the targets. Thus, women may face difficulty anticipating anger and anger-based aggression from other women. How might women manage this challenge? 

The functional projection of emotion may facilitate useful behavior; for instance, "seeing" anger on people believed to pose threats to physical safety may help perceivers preempt or avoid physical harm. Given the threats that women face, we predicted that (a) women are biased to "see" anger on neutral female (but not male) faces and that (b) women who are likely targets of intrasexual aggression (i.e., sexually desirable or available women) show an exaggerated bias. 

We report three studies that support these hypotheses and, more broadly, illustrate the value of a functional approach to social cognition.

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By:  Krems JA1, Neuberg SL2, Filip-Crawford G2, Kenrick DT2.

• 1Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.
• 2Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.

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Hair penalties: The negative influence of Afrocentric hair on ratings of Black women’s dominance and professionalism

Women are penalized if they do not behave in a stereotype-congruent manner (Heilman, 1983,2001; Eagly and Carli, 2007). For example, because women are not expected to be agentic they incur an “agency penalty” for expressing anger, dominance or assertiveness (Rudman, 1998; Rudman and Glick, 1999, 2001; Eagly and Karau, 2002; Rudman and Fairchild, 2004; Brescoll and Uhlmann, 2008; Livingston et al., 2012). Yet, all women are not equally penalized (Livingston et al., 2012). We make a novel contribution by examining how both White and Black evaluators respond to displays of Black women’s dominance, in this case, whether Black women choose to wear Afrocentric or Eurocentric hairstyles.

We conducted three experimental studies to examine the influence of target hairstyle and participant race on ratings of the target’s professionalism (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and dominance (Study 2). Study 1 was an online experimental study with 200 participants (112 females, 87 males, 1 missing gender; 160 Whites, 19 Blacks, 11 Latinos, 7 Asian Americans and 3 who identify as “other”; M_age = 35.5,SD = 11.4). Study 2 was an online experimental study with 510 participants (276 women, 234 males; 256 Blacks, 254 Whites; M_age = 41.25 years, SD = 12.21). Study 3 was an online experimental study with 291 participants (141 Blacks, 150 Whites, M_age = 47.5 years, SD = 11.66).

Black, as compared to White, evaluators gave higher agency penalties to Black employment candidates when they donned Afrocentric versus Eurocentric hair, rating them as more dominant and less professional.

The present research illustrates the significance of considering both target and evaluator race when examining the influence of agency, and specifically dominance, on ratings of professionalism.

Below:  Images used in studies

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By: Tina R. Opie1,* and Katherine W. Phillips2


1Management Division, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA

2Management Division, Columbia Business School, New York, NY, USA