https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619896273
Psychological Science
1–10
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0956797619896273
www.psychologicalscience.org/PS
ASSOCIATION FOR
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Preregistered Direct Replication
Objectification has been widely investigated in social
psychology since the publication of the influential
objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). It
is defined as the treatment of a human being as an
object (Nussbaum, 1995) and has been mainly applied
to the sexual sphere (i.e., sexual objectification), in
which women are often reduced to sexual objects
(Bartky, 1990). Objectification theory suggests that
because of repeated exposure to objectifying portrayals
of women in the media, culture, and education, women
internalize such a view of themselves—that is, they
self-objectify (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
In numerous studies, self-objectification has been
claimed to be responsible for a large array of negative
consequences at an individual level (e.g., eating disor-
ders, decreased self-esteem, depressive symptoms; for a
review, see Moradi & Huang, 2008). Adopting a collective
perspective, some scholars argued that self-objectification
might additionally be deleterious for the status of women
as a group (Calogero, 2013). Indeed, women who adopt
an objectifying view of themselves may “perpetuate their
own disadvantaged state” (Calogero, 2013, p. 313). The
explanation for such maintenance of the status quo relies
on system-justification theory (Jost & Kay, 2005). This
theory suggests that members of a disadvantaged group
not only comply with the dominant view but also some-
times internalize it and consider it to be fair, balanced,
and legitimate (Jost & Kay, 2005). Integrating objectifica-
tion in the system-justification perspective, Calogero pro-
posed that self-objectified women tend to support the
patriarchal status quo (i.e., gender-specific system
896273PSS XX X 10.1177/0956797619896273De Wilde et al.Preregistered Direct Replications of <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bibr4-0956797619896273">Calogero’s (2013)</xref> Study
research-article 2020
Corresponding Author:
Matthias De Wilde, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal
Mercier, 10, L3.05.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
E-mail: matthias.dewilde@uclouvain.be
Two Preregistered Direct Replications
of “Objects Don’t Object: Evidence That
Self-Objectification Disrupts Women’s
Social Activism”
Matthias De Wilde
1
, Annalisa Casini
1
, Philippe Bernard
2
,
Robin Wollast
2
, Olivier Klein
2
, and Stéphanie Demoulin
1
1
Department of Social Psychology, Université Catholique de Louvain, and
2
Department of Social Psychology,
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Abstract
Self-objectification has been claimed to induce numerous detrimental consequences for women at the individual level
(e.g., sexual dysfunction, depression, eating disorders). Additionally, at the collective level, it has been proposed that
self-objectified women might themselves contribute to the maintenance of the patriarchal status quo, for instance,
by participating less in collective action. In 2013, Calogero found a negative link between self-objectification and
collective action, which was mediated by the adoption of gender-specific system justification. Here, we report two
preregistered direct replications (PDRs) of Calogero’s original study. We conducted these PDRs after three failures to
replicate the positive relation between self-objectification and gender-specific system-justification belief in correlational
studies. Results of the two PDRs, in which we used a Bayesian approach, supported the null hypothesis. This work has
important theoretical implications because it challenges the role attributed to self-objectified women in the maintenance
of patriarchy.
Keywords
self-objectification, system justification, reproducibility, mini meta-analysis, open data, open materials, preregistered
Received 2/14/19; Revision accepted 10/17/19