Citation

Cobb MD, Boettcher WA. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 2007; 37(12): 3025-3042.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00292.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We evaluate the oft-repeated but typically untested claim that rap music encourages sexism. We randomly assigned participants to 1 of 3 conditions: no music, misogynistic rap music, and nonmisogynistic rap music. The first study (treated as a pilot; N = 232) weakly demonstrated the differential impact of exposure on male and female participants, but our measures of sexism were unreliable. We then conducted a second study (N = 175) employing well-validated (and more subtle) measures taken from the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). While we replicated the weak differential impact of participants' sex, we also find that sexism increased after listening to nonmisogynistic rap music, especially among males. Implications for the debate about labeling and censoring rap music are discussed.