1. The Effect of Mortality Salience on Attitudes Toward Women Meredith Cotton Stephanie Goss Hanover College

2. People are terrified of the idea that they will die Protect themselves from thought of their own death through having cultural worldviews and living up to these standards Cultural worldviews can entail nationalism, traditional thinking, religion, etc. ~ Schimel, et al. (1999)

3. Greenberg et al. (1994): 2 Mortality Salient conditions, and 1 neutral Evaluated essays and authors Own death preferred Pro-American author more than other conditions preferred Pro-American Own death agreed with arguments of Pro-American essay

4. Schimel et al. (1999): Packets pertaining to personality characteristics Mortality salience vs. dental pain Stereotype consistent and inconsistent behaviors Mortality salient  explained stereotype inconsistent behaviors

5. Thoughts about one’s own death increases traditional thinking Looking at sexist thinking about women

6. We expect that participants primed with mortality salience will display more benevolent sexist thinking towards women than those participants who are not primed with mortality salience.

7. Participants: Approx. 41 Hanover College students (51% female) Age 18 – 22 95% Caucasian Materials: Writing prompts (Body Process vs. Ideal Date) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 2001)

8. 22 statements, Likert Scale 1-6 Benevolent Sexism A good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man α=.827 Hostile Sexism Women seek to gain power by getting control over men α=.906

9. Procedure: Informed Consent Writing Prompt (8 min.) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory Demographics Debriefing

10. One-way ANOVA, p=.548

11. One-way ANOVA, p=.194

12. Why is Hypothesis Not Supported ? Ideal date evoked thinking about gender roles Visual aid might be better than writing prompts Preconceived thoughts about death (positive) Age of participants

13. Future Direction Religion Other control conditions Ages Mechanism of measuring engagement of writing

14. Conclusion Males show greater sexism versus females Previous studies actually looking at other factors Attitudes toward women different than acceptance of women in stereotypic and non-stereotypic behavior

15. Questions? Comments?

16. References Glick, P. & Fiske, S.T., (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56 (2), 109-118. Greenberg, J., Pyszcynski, T., Solomon, S., Simon, L., & Breus, M. (1994). The role of consciousness and the accessibility of death-related thought in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 627-637. Schimel, J. et al. (1999). Stereotypes and terror management: Evidence that mortality salience enhances stereotypic thinking and preference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (77)5, 905-926.