Is it the (Sexist) Company You’re Keeping? Examining the Connection between Psychological Health and Perceptions of Sexism Endorsement in One’s Personal Network

Ambivalent sexism theory proposes people endorse both positive/benevolent and negative/hostile views towards both women and men. Although some work has examined the effects of endorsing these views, no work to date has examined whether the perceived sexist beliefs of one’s personal network are connected to one’s own psychological health. Using a sample of American adults (N=277), the current study used a novel methodology designed to assess the perceptions of the sexism in one’s personal network (e.g., friends, coworkers, romantic partners, family members), along with multiple measures of psychological health. Results suggest that perceived network hostile sexism toward women was associated with lower well-being and greater distress, but perceived network benevolence toward women was associated with higher life satisfaction. Unexpected, perceiving one’s network to endorse more hostile sexism toward men than oneself was associated lower levels of distress and higher well-being. Results were mostly consistent for both men and women.