In the present study, we draw from ambivalent sexism and frameworks centering marginalization to investigate how individuals’ marginalized race or gender identity influences their perceptions of benevolent sexism. We conducted an experimental scenario study during which a sample of Black and White adult participants (n = 325; M_age = 25.89 years) read a vignette about an interaction where a man student (perpetrator) gives a protective justification for restricting a woman student’s (target) involvement in one of two tasks for a class project. Participants were then asked about how dangerous they believed the tasks were, how they believed the woman target felt after her behavior was restricted, and whether they believed the man perpetrator had benevolent or malevolent motivations behind his restrictive behavior. We theorized that participants with marginalized race-gender identities would be more sensitive to threat, and consequently, that they would be more accepting of paternalistic behaviors. Our results supported the hypotheses: we found that compared to White men, participants with marginalized race and/or gender identities perceived the restricted task described in the vignettes as more dangerous and were consequently more likely to perceive the woman target as feeling more positively about her treatment and to perceive the man perpetrator as having more benevolent (and less malevolent) motivations for his behavior. These results suggest that individuals’ marginalized race or gender identities may influence their perceptions of benevolent sexism through their impact on how members from these groups perceive threat. The implications of study findings for future research and policy are discussed.

在本研究中，我们利用矛盾的性别歧视和以边缘化为中心的框架来调查个人的边缘化种族或性别认同如何影响他们对仁慈的性别歧视的看法。我们进行了一项实验情景研究，其中黑人和白人成年参与者样本（n  = 325；男性_年龄= 25.89 岁）阅读了一段关于互动的小插曲，其中男学生（犯罪者）给出了限制女学生（目标）参与班级项目的两项任务之一。然后，参与者被问及他们认为这些任务有多危险，他们认为女性目标在其行为受到限制后有何感受，以及他们是否认为男性犯罪者的限制行为背后有仁慈或恶意的动机。我们的理论是，具有边缘化种族性别身份的参与者对威胁更加敏感，因此，他们会更接受家长式行为。我们的结果支持了以下假设：我们发现，与白人男性相比，具有边缘化种族和/或性别认同的参与者认为小插图中描述的限制性任务更危险，因此更有可能认为女性目标对自己的感觉更积极治疗并认为男性犯罪者的行为动机更多是仁慈的（而不是恶意的）。这些结果表明，个人的边缘化种族或性别身份可能会通过影响这些群体的成员如何看待威胁来影响他们对仁慈的性别歧视的看法。讨论了研究结果对未来研究和政策的影响。