Written by Nathalie Gauthier and the Research Committee
Ted Bundy is estimated to have sexually assaulted and murdered up to 50 victims, and has also been referred to as an extreme example of a criminal psychopath. He referred to his female victims as objects like “potted plants” and spoke of them as being items to collect. As previous research has identified that psychopathy has been associated with violent attitudes and behavior towards women (such as the endorsement of rape myths, negative attitudes about rape victims, and the perpetration of sexual assault and intimate partner violence), this attitude of objectification and dehumanization of women may provide some insight into this link.
Dehumanization is the belief that a person or group is less human than oneself, and can include animalistic (which includes emotions and personality traits), mechanistic (objectification), and mind perception dehumanization. Animalistic dehumanization includes 2 subtypes, which refer to the belief that the other has more animal traits (personality trait objectification), is irrational and only behaves instinctively (emotional objectification), or is part of an inferior species. Mechanistic dehumanization is the belief that the other is an object or a collection of body parts. Mind Perception dehumanization is the disregarding or denying that others have a sense of mind, their own thoughts and ideas. Previous research has identified that sexual violence towards women and the objectification of women can contain these 3 forms of dehumanization. A woman being reduced to only her sexual parts, blaming sexual assault victims for causing assaults through their sexuality or innate sexual instinct, and dismissing the psychological or emotional impact on the victim are examples of mechanistic, animal (personality and emotional), and mind perception dehumanization, respectively.
Methot-Jones, Book, and Gauthier (2019) conducted 2 online studies in a community sample to look at the relationship between subclinical psychopathy and hostile sexism and violent attitudes towards women, as well as the role of dehumanization in this relationship. They also looked at how the interpersonal and affective personality features of psychopathy (known as Factor 1) and the antisocial and erratic behavior features of psychopathy (Factor 2) uniquely contribute to these attitudes. The researchers hypothesized that higher psychopathy scores would mean higher dehumanization of women, and thus more hostile sexism and attitudes supportive of violence towards women. They also examined the different types of dehumanization and how different forms of dehumanization facilitate negative attitudes towards women.
Study 1
Method: A community sample of 514 males completed self-report surveys online. The sample for this study was predominantly Caucasian (53.7 %), with an average age of 29. Participants were asked to fill out the Self-Report Psychopathy scale, a well-validated questionnaire of psychopathic traits in community samples. Participants also completed questionnaires measuring: hostile sexism, attitudes supportive of violence against women, rape myths, and 4 types of dehumanization (animalistic personality, animalistic emotion, objectification, and mind-perception.)
Results: Psychopathic traits (both Factor 1 and factor 2) were significantly correlated with all measures of dehumanization, as well as hostile sexism and attitudes supportive of violence towards women. Individuals with higher psychopathy scores were more likely to endorse negative and violent attitudes towards women, to dehumanize women.
The researchers also examined if dehumanization linked psychopathy and violent attitudes towards women, and, if so, which form of dehumanization best explains the association. They found that dehumanization facilitated the association between psychopathic traits and negative and violent attitudes towards women, especially for Factor 1 (interpersonal and affective personality traits). Furthermore, the most consistent path appeared to be through objectification dehumanization.
Study 2
This study was conducted to replicate and extend the findings from Study 1. In this study, a behavioral decision-making task was added as a measure of violence towards women. Researchers wanted to examine participants’ reactions using a more nuanced behavioral scenario because people are not always aware of their own attitudes, and some of the questionnaires of hostile sexism and attitudes supportive of violence towards women may capture extreme beliefs but be less sensitive to more subtle beliefs.
Method: A community and university sample of 202 males were recruited online. The same measures were used as in Study 1, as well as an audio clip depicting a dating scenario that becomes increasingly coercive and aggressive sexually, until the man in the audio clip perpetrates date rape (date-rape latency measure). Participants were asked to complete the questionnaires, as well as to listen to the scenario, then indicate where in the transcript they would have stopped progressing the encounter and where it was no longer acceptable to continue.
Results: As in Study 1, psychopathic traits (both Factor 1 and Factor 2) were significantly correlated with all measures of dehumanization, as well as hostile sexism. However, in this study, psychopathic traits were also related to date-rape latency; those higher in psychopathy reported it was acceptable to progress further (in the scenario) in the escalation of coercive behavior towards committing date-rape. Objectification dehumanization especially facilitated the relationship between Factor 1 psychopathic traits and hostile sexism, and the relationship between psychopathic traits and date-rape latency.
Though Ted Bundy provides an extreme example of psychopathy and psychopathic behavior, this research does support the notion that his tendency to view and treat women as objects may not be an isolated occurrence. The findings from these studies are consistent with previous research suggesting that psychopathic traits are significantly and positively associated with violent attitudes towards women (Debowska et al., 2015; Mouilso & Calhoun, 2013; Watts et al., 2017). The results also indicate that sub-clinical psychopathy is consistently related to measures of dehumanization, and that dehumanization does appear to help explain the link between psychopathic traits and sexist and violent attitudes towards women. Individuals high in psychopathic traits may be more inclined to endorse sexist and violent attitudes and behavior towards women because they see them as being less human, and as such deserving of treatment that is less than humane.
Reference: Methot-Jones, T., Book, A., & Gauthier, N. (2019). Less than human: psychopathy, dehumanization, and sexist and violent attitudes towards women. Personality and Individual Differences, 149, 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.06.002
