Dr Francesca Guizzo


Lecturer in Social Psychology
BSc, MSc, PhD
+44 (0)1483 689582
15 AC 05
Office hours: Tue 3-5pm - Personal tutoring: Tue 5-6pm

About

Areas of specialism

Sexual objectification; Sexism; Dehumanization; Media; Sexual harassment; Gender; Stereotyping

My qualifications

2006-2009
BSc in Psychological Sciences of Personality and Interpersonal Relations
University of Padova, Italy.
2009-2011
MSc in Clinical Dynamic Psychology
University of Padova, Italy
2013-2015
Ph.D in Psychological Sciences, Cognitive program
University of Padova, Italy

Research

Research interests

Teaching

Publications

Highlights

Guizzo, F., Canale, N., & Fasoli, F (2021). Instagram Sexualization: When posts make you feel dissatisfied and wanting to change your body. Body Image, 39, 62-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.06.005

Bosson, J. K., Jurek, P., Vandello, J. A., [...] Guizzo, F., […] & Van Laar, C. (2021). Psychometric properties and correlates of precarious manhood beliefs in 62 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022121997997

Galdi, S., & Guizzo, F. (2021). Media-induced Sexual Harassment: The routes from sexually objectifying media to sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 84, 645–669. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01196-0

Gramazio, S., Cadinu, M., Guizzo, F., & Carnaghi, A. (2021). Does sex really sell? Paradoxical effects of sexualization in advertising on product attractiveness and purchasing intention. Sex Roles, 84, 701-719. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01190-6

Guizzo, F., & Cadinu, M. (2020). Women, not objects: testing a sensitizing web campaign against female sexual objectification to temper sexual harassment and hostile sexism. Media Psychology. Advance online pubblication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2020.1756338

Cadinu, M., Carnaghi, A., & Guizzo, F. (2020). Group meaningfulness and the causal direction of influence between the ingroup and the self or another individual: Evidence from the Induction-Deduction Paradigm. PloS one, 15(3), e0229321. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229321

Guizzo, F., Moè, A., Cadinu, M., & Bertolli, C. (2019). The role of implicit gender spatial stereotyping in mental rotation performance. Acta Psychologica, 194, 63-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.01.013

Fasoli, F., Cadinu, M., Carnaghi, A., Galdi, S., Guizzo, F., & Tassara, L. (2018). How do you self-categorize? Gender and sexual orientation self-categorization in homosexual/heterosexual men and women. Personality and Individual Differences123, 135-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.011

Guizzo, F., Cadinu, M., Galdi, S., Maass, A., & Latrofa, M. (2017). Objecting to Objectification: Women's Collective Action Against Sexual Objectification on Television. Sex Roles, 77, 352-365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0725-8

Guizzo, F., & Cadinu, M. (2017). Effects of Objectifying Gaze on Women’s Cognitive Performance: the Role of Flow Experience and Internalization of Beauty Ideals. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12170

FRANCESCA GUIZZO, Natale Canale, FABIO FASOLI (2021)Instagram Sexualization: When posts make you feel dissatisfied and wanting to change your body, In: Body image39pp. 62-67 Elsevier
Silvia Galdi, Francesca Guizzo, Fabio Fasoli (2022)Media representation matters: The effects of exposure to counter-stereotypical gay male characters on heterosexual men's expressions of discrimination, In: Group processes & intergroup relations Sage

Presence of gay men in mainstream media may have a positive impact on viewers' attitude change. However, gay male characters are often stereotypically portrayed as feminine, and no research has yet explored audiences' reactions to counter-stereotypical gay characters. Heterosexual Italian men (N = 158) were exposed to a clip portraying (i) a stereotypical feminine gay male character, (ii) a counter-stereotypical masculine gay male character, or (iii) a nature documentary. Compared to the other conditions, exposure to the counter-stereotypical gay character increased discrimination toward gay men, in the form of anti-gay jokes, the higher the level of participants' prejudice against gay men. Results further demonstrated that this effect was explained by reduced perceived stereotypicality of the character. Findings are in line with the social identity theory prediction that when gay men (outgroup) are perceived as too similar, and potentially threaten the group identity, heterosexual men would attempt to restore ingroup distinctiveness.

Daniela Di Michele, Francesca Guizzo, Natale Canale, Fabio Fasoli, Francesca Carotta, Arianna Pollini, Mara Cadinu (2023)SexyBodyPositive: When Sexualization Does Not Undermine Young Women’s Body Image, In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health20(2)991 MDPI

Research suggests that exposure to social networking sites portraying a thin and often sexualized beauty ideal reduces young women’s body satisfaction, while exposure to body-positive content improves it. However, it is unclear whether sexualization could impair the beneficial effects of body-positivity messages. Young Italian women were exposed to one of three experimental conditions showing sexualized beauty ideals, sexualized body positivity, or non-sexualized body positivity that appeared either on Instagram (Study 1, N = 356) or TikTok (Study 2, N = 316). Across the two studies, results showed that, regardless of sexualization, exposure to body positivity increased body satisfaction and positive mood compared with pre-exposure measures, while exposure to sexualized beauty ideals reduced it. Participants in the sexualized beauty ideal condition also engaged in upward appearance social comparison whereas body positivity elicited downward comparison. Problematic social networking sites’ use moderated the effects of condition on body satisfaction, appearance social comparison, and positive mood, while downward comparison mediated the relation between condition and body satisfaction and positive mood. Our results highlight both beneficial and critical aspects of body positivity that should be taken into consideration when designing body image interventions and policymaking.

Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka, Jennifer Bosson, Paweł Jurek, Tomasz Besta, Michał Olech, Joseph Vandello, Michael Bender, Justine Dandy, Vera Hoorens, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, Eric Mankowski, Satu Venäläinen, Sami Abuhamdeh, Collins Badu Agyemang, Gülçin Akbaş, Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, Soline Ammirati, Joel R. Anderson, Gulnaz Anjum, Amarina Ariyanto, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Mujeeba Ashraf, Aistė Bakaitytė, Maja Becker, Chiara Bertolli, Dashamir Bërxulli, Deborah Best, Chongzeng Bi, Katharina Block, Mandy Boehnke, Renata Bongiorno, Janine Bosak, Annalisa Casini, Qingwei Chen, Peilian Chi, Vera Cubela Adoric, Serena Daalmans, Soledad de Lemus, Sandesh Dhakal, Nikolay Dvorianchikov, Sonoko Egami, Edgardo Etchezahar, Carla Sofia Esteves, Laura Froehlich, Efrain Garcia-Sanchez, Alin Gavreliuc, Dana Gavreliuc, Ángel Gomez, Francesca Guizzo, Sylvie Graf, Hedy Greijdanus, Ani Grigoryan, Joanna Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Keltouma Guerch, Marie Gustafsson Sendén, Miriam-Linnea Hale, Hannah Hämer, Mika Hirai, Lam Hoang Duc, Martina Hřebíčková, Paul Hutchings, Dorthe Høj Jensen, Serdar Karabati, Kaltrina Kelmendi, Gabriella Kengyel, Narine Khachatryan, Rawan Ghazzawi, Mary Kinahan, Teri Kirby, Monika Kovacs, Desiree Kozlowski, Vladislav Krivoshchekov, Kuba Kryś, Clara Kulich, Tai Kurosawa, Nhan Thi Lac An, Javier Labarthe-Carrara, Mary Anne Lauri, Ioana Latu, Abiodun Musbau Lawal, Junyi Li, Jana Lindner, Anna Lindqvist, Angela Maitner, Elena Makarova, Ana Makashvili, Shera Malayeri, Sadia Malik, Tiziana Mancini, Claudia Manzi, Silvia Mari, Sarah Martiny, Claude-Hélène Mayer, Vladimir Mihić, Jasna Miloševićđorđević, Eva Moreno-Bella, Silvia Moscatelli, Andrew Bryan Moynihan, Dominique Muller, Erita Narhetali (2022)Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models, In: Social Psychological and Personality Science SAGE Publications

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries ( N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.

Chiara Pecini, Francesca Guizzo, Helena Bonache, Nira Borges-Castells, Maria Morera, Jeroen Vaes (2023)Sexual objectification: advancements and avenues for future research, In: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences50101261 Elsevier

Starting from the formulation of Objectification Theory, research has widely investigated the causes and consequences of sexual objectification. In the current article, we discuss three issues that we think are central in the current literature and point to new research directions. First, we highlight the need to further investigate differences and similarities with dehumanization; second, we suggest future interventions to target men and promote different values from those imposed by hegemonic masculinity; third, we suggest going beyond the gender binary perspective adopted so far to include the experience of gender nonconforming individuals. Overall, despite the impressive amount of work done, more research is needed to better understand this process with the aim of finding ways to overcome its consequences.

Jennifer Bosson, Paweł Jurek, Joseph Vandello, Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka, Michał Olech, Tomasz Besta, Michael Bender, Vera Hoorens, Maja Becker, A. Timur Sevincer, Deborah Best, Saba Safdar, Anna Włodarczyk, Magdalena Zawisza, Magdalena Żadkowska, Sami Abuhamdeh, Collins Badu Agyemang, Gülçin Akbaş, Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, Soline Ammirati, Joel Anderson, Gulnaz Anjum, Amarina Ariyanto, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Mujeeba Ashraf, Aistė Bakaitytė, Chiara Bertolli, Dashamir Bërxulli, Chongzeng Bi, Katharina Block, Mandy Boehnke, Renata Bongiorno, Janine Bosak, Annalisa Casini, Qingwei Chen, Peilian Chi, Vera Cubela Adoric, Serena Daalmans, Justine Dandy, Soledad De Lemus, Sandesh Dhakal, Nikolay Dvorianchikov, Sonoko Egami, Edgardo Etchezahar, Carla Sofia Esteves, Neto Felix, Laura Froehlich, Efrain Garcia-Sanchez, Alin Gavreliuc, Dana Gavreliuc, Ángel Gomez, Francesca Guizzo, Sylvie Graf, Hedy Greijdanus, Ani Grigoryan, Joanna Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Keltouma Guerch, Marie Gustafsson Sendén, Miriam-Linnea Hale, Hannah Hämer, Mika Hirai, Lam Hoang Duc, Martina Hřebíčková, Paul Hutchings, Dorthe Høj Jensen, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, Serdar Karabati, Kaltrina Kelmendi, Gabriella Kengyel, Narine Khachatryan, Rawan Ghazzawi, Mary Kinahan, Teri Kirby, Monika Kovács, Desiree Kozlowski, Vladislav Krivoshchekov, Clara Kulich, Tai Kurosawa, Nhan Thi Lac An, Javier Labarthe, Ioana Latu, Mary Anne Lauri, Eric Mankowski, Abiodun Musbau Lawal, Junyi Li, Jana Lindner, Anna Lindqvist, Angela Maitner, Elena Makarova, Ana Makashvili, Shera Malayeri, Sadia Malik, Tiziana Mancini, Claudia Manzi, Silvia Mari, Sarah Martiny, Claude-Hélène Mayer, Vladimir Mihić, Jasna Milošević Đorđević, Eva Moreno-Bella (2021)Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations, In: Journal of cross-cultural psychology52(3)pp. 231-258 SAGE Publications

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions ( N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role.

Francesca Guizzo, Angelica Moè, Mara Cadinu, Chiara Bertolli (2019)The role of implicit gender spatial stereotyping in mental rotation performance, In: Acta psychologica194pp. 63-68 Elsevier B.V

Men outscore women in mental rotation. Among the possible explanations for this result are gender stereotypes. Research has shown that instructions confirming or disconfirming the gender stereotype that men are more talented than women may affect performance in some spatial tasks, such as mental rotation, but research so far has shown inconsistent or null results. However, no research to date has assessed whether participants' implicit associations linking men to spatial abilities may modulate these effects. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the moderating role of the implicit gender spatial stereotyping, that is the automatic associations between men vs. women and space, in male and female participants receiving either stereotypical (stating that men outscore women) or stereotype-nullifying (stating that there is no gender difference) explicit instructions. Results confirmed that men performed better than women in mental rotation, but also showed that in the stereotype-nullifying condition, the higher the automatic associations between space and men the lower men's performance. The discussion focuses on the importance of considering implicit gender spatial stereotyping as a factor that can modulate mental rotation performance. •Implicit Gender Spatial Stereotyping-IGSS measured with implicit association test•IGSS moderates effects of stereotype-nullifying instructions on men MRT performance.•The higher IGSS the lower men MRT scores after stereotype-nullifying instructions.

Francesca Guizzo, Mara Cadinu, Silvia Galdi, Anne Maass, Marcella Latrofa (2017)Objecting to Objectification: Women's Collective Action against Sexual Objectification on Television, In: Sex roles77(5-6)pp. 352-365 Springer Nature

Media often portray women as mere sexual objects, but to date no known research has explored relations between exposure to such media content and willingness to engage in collective action. In the present study, Italian participants (78 men; 81 women) were exposed to a nature TV documentary (Control video), a television clip portraying women as sexual objects (SO video), or to the same sexually objectifying television clip including a commentary against such degrading depiction of women (Critique SO video). After exposure to the Critique SO video, women, but not men, reported greater collective action proclivity and behavioral intention to support a protest against female sexual objectification, as compared to the Control condition. Importantly, results further demonstrated that anger was the mechanism underlying women's collective action proclivity, as well as intention to react. These findings suggest that media literacy messages in the form of critique videos may be valuable tools to promote more active and critical media consumption and that media specialists, concerned citizens, and social media activists may use such messages to motivate women to collectively take action against sexual objectification.

We investigated the novel hypothesis that a sensitizing web campaign against media sexual objectification would lead to lower male gender-harassing conduct (i.e., number of sexist jokes sent to a chat partner), lower sexual coercion intention (via the Likelihood to Sexually Harass scale), and lower hostile sexism (via the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Across two experiments (Ns = 157; 159), male participants were exposed to one of three videos: (a) a web campaign against female objectification (sensitizing), (b) a nature documentary (control), or (c) a video in which women are portrayed as sexual objects (sexually objectifying). Study 1 and Study 2 together demonstrated that men exposed to the sensitizing video showed lower gender-harassing behavior, lower hostile sexism, and lower sexual coercion intention than participants in the other two conditions altogether. Moreover, the sexually objectifying vs. control video condition led to higher gender-harassing behavior. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the sensitizing video led to lower hostile sexism, which in turn was associated with both lower gender-harassing behavior and lower sexual coercion intentions. The sensitizing video led to unexpectedly higher benevolent sexism; however, benevolent sexism was not associated with higher sexual harassment. We conclude by discussing the importance and practical implications of the results.

Francesca Guizzo, Mara Cadinu (2017)Effects of objectifying gaze on female cognitive performance: The role of flow experience and internalization of beauty ideals, In: British journal of social psychology56(2)pp. 281-292

Although previous research has demonstrated that objectification impairs female cognitive performance, no research to date has investigated the mechanisms underlying such decrement. Therefore, we tested the role of flow experience as one mechanism leading to performance decrement under sexual objectification. Gaze gender was manipulated by having male versus female experimenters take body pictures of female participants (N = 107) who then performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task. As predicted, a moderated mediation model showed that under male versus female gaze, higher internalization of beauty ideals was associated with lower flow, which in turn decreased performance. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to objectification theory and strategies to prevent sexually objectifying experiences.

Mara Cadinu, Andrea Carnaghi, Francesca Guizzo (2020)Group meaningfulness and the causal direction of influence between the ingroup and the self or another individual: Evidence from the Induction-Deduction Paradigm, In: PloS one15(3)pp. e0229321-e0229321 Public Library Science

The goal of the present study was to investigate the causal direction of influence between the ingroup as a whole and the self or another ingroup member considering a key feature of groups, i.e., their perceived meaningfulness. To this goal, in Study 1, 2, and 3 we predicted a preference for self-stereotyping and ingroup-stereotyping in the meaningful social categories of sorority women, left-handed people and psychology students. In Study 4 we further expect that the meaningfulness attributed to a group moderates the direction of causality between individual and ingroup perception. Thus, we used one's Zodiac sign as the ingroup whose degree of meaningfulness varies across participants and we hypothesized higher levels of meaningfulness attributed to the ingroup to be associated with higher self- and ingroup-stereotyping. Using the methodologically stringent Induction Deduction Paradigm, participants were given information on unfamiliar dimensions, about either the ingroup or an individual (self or other ingroup member) and asked to make inferences on those same attributes about the ingroup (induction condition) or the individual (deduction condition). As predicted, a preference for deduction to the self (i.e., self-stereotyping) and deduction to another ingroup member (i.e., ingroup-stereotyping) were found for the meaningful groups of sorority women, left-handed people, and Psychology students (Studies 1, 2, and 3). In Study 4, consistent with predictions, the higher the level of attributed meaningfulness to the Zodiac system the higher the degree of deduction both to the self (self-stereotyping) and to another Zodiac ingroup member (ingroup-stereotyping). Several implications of these results are discussed, for example in relation to the possibility of educational interventions aimed at invalidating intergroup differences.

Silvia Galdi, Francesca Guizzo (2021)Media-Induced Sexual Harassment: The Routes from Sexually Objectifying Media to Sexual Harassment, In: Sex roles84(11-12)pp. 645-669 Springer Nature

Media that sexually objectify women by portraying them in ways that emphasize physical beauty and sexual readiness as well as reduce them to decorative and sexual objects have been traditionally identified by scholars as a powerful cultural risk factor encouraging sexual harassment and sexual violence. In the present article we review the existing empirical evidence linking sexually objectifying media and sexual harassment of women to the overarching and integrative Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework. This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the effects of sexually objectifying media on three target groups directly involved in sexual harassment-perpetrators, victims, and bystanders-and it postulates three cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which sexually objectifying media lead to sexual harassment: dehumanization, disruption of emphatic resonance, and a shift in gender norms. The evidence reviewed on the basis of the Media-Induced Sexual Harassment framework shows that sexually objectifying media converge in normalizing harassing behaviors and can be a causal risk factor for increasing engagement in sexual harassment, heightening victims' acceptance of sexual harassment and discouraging bystander intervention. We discuss implications of these arguments for effectively preventing negative effects of exposure to sexually objectifying media and for education programs aimed at critical media-consumption.

Sarah Gramazio, Mara Cadinu, Francesca Guizzo, Andrea Carnaghi (2021)Does Sex Really Sell? Paradoxical Effects of Sexualization in Advertising on Product Attractiveness and Purchase Intentions, In: Sex roles84(11-12)pp. 701-719 Springer Nature

To test the "sex sells" assumption, we examined how Italian men and women react to sexualized advertising. Women showed lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward products presented with sexualized female models than with neutral ads, whereas men were unaffected by ads' sexualization (Study 1,n = 251). Study 2 (n = 197) replicated the overall results. Study 3 (n = 198) tested hostile sexism as a moderator as well as negative emotions as a mediator of consumers' responses. Especially men with higher hostile sexism showed more purchase intentions after viewing female sexualized ads than neutral ads. Moreover, women's lower consumer responses toward sexualized female ads were due to higher negative emotions. Study 4 (n = 207) included ads with both female and male models, replicating responses to female sexualization and showing that both women and men had lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward male sexualized ads than neutral ads. Replicating and extending Study 3's results, women's negative emotions was the mediator. The present study has practical implications for marketers because it suggests that "sex does not sell." In addition, considering both the psychological damage and practical inefficacy of sexualized ads, our findings have important implications for public policy.