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The “Equal-Opportunity Jerk” Defense: Rudeness Can Obfuscate Gender Bias

Peter Belmi¹; Sora Jun²; Gabrielle S. Adams^1,3

¹ Leadership and Organizational Behavior Area, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia · ² Department of Organizations, Strategy and International Management, Naveen Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas · ³ Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia.

To address sexism, people must first recognize it. In this research, we identified a barrier that makes sexism hard to recognize: rudeness toward men. We found that observers judge a sexist perpetrator as less sexist if he is rude toward men. This occurs because rudeness toward men creates the illusion of gender blindness. We documented this phenomenon in five preregistered studies consisting of online adult participants and adult students from professional schools (total N = 4,663). These attributions are problematic because sexism and rudeness are not mutually exclusive. Men who hold sexist beliefs about women can be—and often are—rude toward other men. These attributions also discourage observers from holding perpetrators accountable for gender bias. Thus, rudeness toward men gives sexist perpetrators plausible deniability. It protects them and prevents the first perceptual step necessary to address sexism.

DOI

10.1177/09567976211040495

Volume

33 (3)

Pages

397-411

Language

en

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Sources

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