Chivalry isn’t dead — but perhaps it ought to be.
While mean male misogynists are rightfully villainized for their overt prejudice toward women, Prince Charming isn’t living up to his chivalrous reputation either as new findings reveal he’s just as likely to be cheating on Princess Charming — and she probably has no clue.
“Benevolent” sexism refers to a belief that women are vulnerable and need the protection of men, which can understandably be misconstrued as simply being polite. However, this seemingly protective and fatherly view of manhood is founded on the same male-chauvinistic principle — essentially, that men are superior to women — as “hostile” sexism, an open expression of contempt for women.
Cheating happens more among seemingly dutiful men than women realize, the new findings highlight.. In the US, approximately 21% of men and 13% of women have stepped out of their relationships in some way. Traits such as promiscuity, previous infidelity and insecure attachment have all been associated with predictors of cheating in previous studies, according to a PsyPost on the new findings.
Adding to that list of red flags, a new report published in the Journal of Sex Research explored whether sexist attitudes were a reliable predictor of infidelity, as well as the likelihood that benevolent vs hostile sexist men were to cheat, as opposed to those with no sexist values in either direction. They also wanted to know how well women women could sense which of these groups was most likely to cheat.
The first test involved 379 heterosexual men from the US who answered questions to assess their level of sexist values as well as their likelihood of cheating, including whether or not they’d cheated or thought about cheating in the past. The surveys confirmed both hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes as significant indicators of infidelity, and the more sexist the men were the more likely they were to have considered or committed cheating on their partner.
A follow-up trial involved another 544 straight American men to confirm the preceding results, as well as assess the importance sexist men placed on power in their relationships. Again, both forms of sexism were high indicators of infidelity, and both were strongly associated with being in a position of power in a relationship — perhaps making them more likely to cheat.
A final test measured whether women were as wary of benevolent sexist attitudes as hostile ones. Following a series of hypothetical statements about three types of men — exhibiting hostile sexism, benevolent sexism and no sexism — a group of 244 heterosexual women rated each based on how likely they believed the subject was to cheat.
Women were astutely dubious of the sort of sexist men who, for example, accuse them of “[using] men for their own ends and, when in a relationship, attempt to restrain a man’s independence and exert undue control over his behavior.” And, indeed, men with this level of resentment against women are more likely to cheat on their female partners.
By contrast, women were blind to the charms of benevolent types who espoused such views as “a man must “provide financial support and economic security for a woman.” Even when they found the statements patronizing or anti-feminist, they failed to adequately asses these men as adulterers.
In their report, researchers concluded that women may be underestimating women who display benevolent sexist attitudes by misconstruing such views as protective or committed.
Per PsyPost, they wrote, “Our findings are consistent with prior work showing that men with benevolent sexism are perceived as willing to commit to their relationships. Thus, women find them attractive even though women also perceive these men as patronizing and undermining.”
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