This CAREER project focuses on the problem of intergroup bias and considers the way that gender affects its expression. Drawing from two influential theories within social psychology known as social identity theory and social dominance theory, the proposed research examines the psychology of antipathy towards men of social out-groups. In carrying out this research, the PI tests a major component of social dominance theory previously dubbed "the subordinate male target hypothesis," and extends it to a more general "out-group male target hypothesis" that is consistent with the aims of the proposal. Specifically, this highly innovative project examines the way that men and women psychologically represent intergroup bias differently, and the way that the gender of the out-group target affects how those representations are expressed. Do men and women have different motivational systems that account for extreme reactions to out-group males? The research proposed addresses this question and other related ones with a rich methodology that includes eight experiments that (a) employ aversive conditioning protocols using group/gender categories as target stimuli, (b) assess the effect of menstrual cycle timing on implicit bias against out-group men, and (c) explore reasoning biases in moral dilemmas that require behavioral responses with life or death consequences of individuals from various social categories within artificial, yet realistic virtual environments. Ultimately, this research will permit a fuller understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying this particular form of out-group animus, and shed light on the impacts of gender, physiological states, as well as judgments and actions in moral dilemmas on the expression of bias.
