Women's attitudes toward men - An integrated threat theory approach

Three studies were conducted to measure the antecedents of women's attitude s toward men using the integrated threat model. Four types of threats were hypothesized to produce negative attitudes toward men: (1) realistic threat based on threats to women's political and economic power, (2) symbolic thr eat based on value differences, (3) intergroup anxiety experienced during s ocial interaction with outgroup members, and (4) negative stereotypes of me n. Negative contact was hypothesized to increase the perception of all four threats as well as to affect attitudes directly. The findings suggest that symbolic threat, intergroup anxiety, and negative contact are the stronges t predictors of negative attitudes toward men. Contrary to expectation, rea listic threat may not be important to women's attitudes toward men.