"Locker room talk": the impact of men degrading women to other men

The present research examines the effects of “locker room talk” by exploring whether conversations among men about sexual activity with women give rise to sexist and rapepromoting attitudes. Male participants listened to an audio recording of either degrading or respectful “locker room talk”. Those exposed to the degrading conversation were expected to exhibit more negative attitudes toward women and stronger rape condoning attitudes. In addition, sexist males were expected to delegate masculine status to men who degraded women. Hypothesis one was not supported, but hypothesis two received partial support: Relative to men lower in sexism, males with higher sexism scores allocated masculine status to men who talked about their sexual encounters regardless of the conversation’s degrading or respectful nature. Men scoring higher in sexism were more likely to endorse rapesupportive attitudes, to hold negative attitudes towards women, and to objectify the woman being discussed in the conversation.