Women tend to be more attracted to men who view females as pure and nurturing but also weak and needing extra care — an attitude that has been named benevolent sexism. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
“We became interested in this topic, because we realized a paradox in the literature on benevolent sexism,” explained study author Pelin Gul of Iowa State University.
“Previous studies have found that men’s benevolent sexism has many detrimental consequences on women (such as undermining their competence, restricting their freedom, confining them to the kitchen), yet research had also shown that women prefer benevolent sexist men and even find these men more attractive than non-benevolent sexist men.”
