The Effect Of Benevolent Sexism And Closeness On Cross-gender Helping

Cross-gender helping is a kind of intergroup helping,which is affected by the status relation between groups.Advantageous group members will choose dependencyoriented helping(a complete solution for problem)to maintain the dominant position,while the disadvantaged groups will narrow this gap by seeking autonomy-oriented helping(a tool to solve the problem).This trend will also be reflected in the crossgender helping between men and women.The present study focused on the two directions of men providing help to women and women seeking help from men.Three studies are conducted to verify the effect of benevolent sexism and closeness on helping willingness and helping type,and to explore possible mediating factors among them.Study 1 investigated the benevolent sexism of 223 subjects,and used the IOS scale to let subjects specify two people with high and low intimacy,and answer the questions of the Helping Intention Questionnaire.The results showed that:(1)Men’s tendency to provide helping and dependency-oriented helping to women with high intimacy were higher than women with low intimacy;while women’s tendency to seek helping and dependency-oriented helping from men with high intimacy were higher than men with low intimacy;(2)Benevolent sexism positively predicted the engagement to dependency-oriented helping for both men and women.Study 2 was a 2(exposure conditions: benevolent sexism environment / controlled environment)× 2(closeness: high/ low)mixed design.By filling in the Helping Intention Questionnaire,it was explored whether exposure to the environment and closeness would affect their willingness and type of provide help/seeking help.The results found that:(1)Men were more willing to provide helping to women with high intimacy than women with low intimacy,and women were more willing to seek helping from men with high intimacy than men with low intimacy;(2)Exposure to benevolent sexism environment predicted men’s willingness to help women;(3)Men exposed to benevolent sexism are prefer to provide dependency-oriented helping to women with high intimacy than women with low intimacy.;(4)Women were more prefer to seek dependency-oriented helping from men with high intimacy than men with low intimacy.Study 3 created a real help scenario,divided the subjects into a high-intimacy group and a low-intimacy group.Women were asked to complete the logic test questions,and the men watched the test questions and answers at the same time.They got feedback of 3 wrong questions and asked to attribution of them.Then they were asked to assume the partners’ expectations and make their own choices among the two types of helping.The results found that:(1)Men with benevolent sexism would assumed high-intimacy women(vs.low-intimacy women)wanted less dependencyoriented helping,so the tendency to choose this helping was also lower.The indirect and direct effect are opposite,and led to a suppressing effects;(2)Women’s choice of dependency-oriented was not affected by closeness and benevolent sexism;(3)Attribution had no mediating effect.In summary,the study found that high intimacy and exposure to benevolent sexism made men more willing to provide helping to women,and benevolent sexism predicted men’s engagement in dependency-oriented helping to women with high intimacy.But when men assumed the partners’ expectations,they will reduce the choice of this kind of helping.For women,the willingness to seek helping,especially dependency-oriented helping,from men with high intimacy were higher,while endorsement of or exposure to the benevolent sexism had no impact.