Congratulations to Dr. Gili Freedman on her recent publication, “Engaging in Social Rejection May be Riskier for Women?” in The Journal of Social Psychology.

In the article, Freedman investigates how women are perceived if they socially reject others in comparison to men.

Publisher link abstract: People often worry how others will perceive them if they socially reject others, but do women have more to fear than men? Although previous research has shown that women are perceived negatively for behaving in counter-stereotypical ways, research on backlash has focused on business settings. The present research applies backlash theory to examine how women are perceived for engaging in social rejection. The findings suggest that backlash may operate differently in social rejection because only men punish women for rejecting. Across four studies, the present research found that (1) women felt they were more likely to be penalized for engaging in social rejection than men, (2) women were less willing to endorse social rejection than men, and (3) men, but not women, viewed female rejectors in a more negative manner than male rejectors.

Read the article here!