Comparing group dehumanization and intra-sexual competition among normally ovulating and hormonal-contraceptive users

The dehumanization of women, namely depriving other women of the ‘human essence’ (Haslam, 2006), has been addressed mainly by analyzing the role of ideological variables(e.g., Ambivalent Sexism; Viki & Abrams, 2003), contextual factors (e.g., appearance focus vs. person focus; Heflick, Goldenberg, Cooper, & Puvia, 2011) and bottom-up processes (e.g., selective exposure to sexualized vs. personalized women;Vaes, Paladino, & Puvia, 2011). The present study investigates it from a different vantage point, by assessing the role played by hormonal fluctuations in determining the level of dehumanization towards other women. With this aim, in two studies, the extent to which women dehumanize each other at different points of the menstrual cycle is analyzed together with whether the use of hormonal contraception moderates these effects. In this way we recast the study of dehumanization within the realm of mate attraction goal of women (Lens, Driesmans, Pandelaere, &Janssens, 2012; Durante, Griskevicius, Hill, Perilloux, & Li, 2011). To our knowledge, there is no existing researchinvestigating how women’s goals to enhance their appearance around ovulation (i.e., women’s mate-attraction goal) influencein-group dehumanization.