Resistance or Cooperation? Actor and Partner Effects of Hostile and Benevolent Sexism on Observed Behavior in Couples’ Interactions

Hostile sexism evokes women's resistance necessitating benevolent sexism to promote cross-gender cooperation. Addressing inconsistent, primarily self-report evidence for ambivalent sexism theory principles, we test the actor and partner effects of sexist attitudes on behaviors exhibited within heterosexual couples' interactions (<i>N</i> = 855 dyadic interactions). Showing that men's hostile sexism likely incites resistance, men's hostile sexism predicted more hostile and less responsive behavior by men and their women partners. Providing new behavioral evidence that benevolent sexism may promote heterosexual cooperation, men's benevolent sexism predicted less hostile and more responsive behavior by men and their partners. Illustrating that benevolent sexism is also likely to have costs for women and men, women's benevolent sexism predicted more hostile behavior by women and their partners, particularly when men partners were low in benevolent or high in hostile sexism. We emphasize the importance of examining how sexist attitudes influence actor and partner behavior across different contexts.