Sexual objectification

SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION

Literally speaking objectification means treating or perceiving someone like a something. In the case of sexual objectification this someone is often a woman that is treated as a body, reduced to her physical features, regarded as if they were capable of representing her. This body-focus has shown to lead to different forms of dehumanization and negative consequences for the objectified.

In our lab we test when and why sexual objectification becomes dehumanizing and what these dehumanizing perceptions imply. Interestingly, sexual objectification towards women is enacted by both male and female participants, but for different reasons. In our lab, we have been testing the diverging motivations why men and women dehumanize sexually objectified women and provide explanations why people engage in sexual objectification.

To know more about this line of research, contact jeroen.vaes@unitn.it

Selected relevant publications:

Vaes, J., Cogoni, C., & Calcagnì, A. (in press). Resolving the human-object divide in sexual objectification: How we settle the categorization conflict when categorizzing objectified and non-objectified human targets. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Vaes, J., Cristoforetti, G., Ruzzante, D., Cogoni, C., & Mazza, V. (2019). Assessing neural responses towards objectified human targets and objects to identify processes of sexual objectification that go beyond the metaphor. Scientific Reports, 9:6699.

Vaes, J. Paladino, M.P., Puvia, E., (2011). Are sexualized women complete human beings? Why males and females dehumanize sexually objectified women. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 774-785.

Vaes, J., Loughnan S., & Puvia, E. (2014). The inhuman body: When sexual objectification becomes dehumanizing. In P. Bain, J. Vaes, & J.Ph. Leyens (Eds.), Humanness and dehumanization, (pp. 186-204). New York: Psychology Press.