囧研究：小蘿莉穿着性感會惹人厭？

Preteen girls who dress in sexualized clothing are judged as less competent and less moral than kids in age-appropriate garb, new research finds。

Earlier studies have found that adult women who dress in revealing clothing are seen as less competent than women who are more buttoned-up. One study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in November even found that scantily clad men suffer similar judgment。

Clothing for young girls has become increasing sexualized, said Sarah Murnen, a social psychologist at Kenyon College in Ohio and the senior author of the new study. Last year, a study by Murnen and colleagues found that 30 percent of children's clothing at major retailers had sexualizing characteristics。

The researchers recruited 162 students, 106 of them women, to view photographs of a prepubescent blonde white girl wearing one of three different outfits and rate them on traits such as competence and intelligence. In the "childlike" condition, the girl wore a gray shirt with ruffled sleeves, jeans and Mary Jane-style shoes. In the "ambiguously sexualized" condition, the girl wore a modest-length dress with a leopard-print pattern — a pattern that is often associated with sexy clothes, but is not overtly sexual。

In the final condition, the girl wore an obviously sexualized outfit: a very short dress with a leopard-print cardigan and purse。

In some photos, the girl was described as an average fifth-grader who enjoys reading and is a member of the student council. In others, she was described as being a top reader at the top of her class and president of the student council。

Describing the girl as a higher achiever did prompt people to rate her as more intelligent and capable, as you might expect, Murnen said. But across the board, people's rankings of the girl's capability, competence, determination and intelligence dropped when she wore the obviously sexualizing outfit. They also ranked her as having lower self-respect and less morality than more modestly dressed versions。

In fact, when the researchers asked participants for feedback after the experiment, many were quite aware of their judgments。

"I formed my assumptions based on her outfit even after being aware of her accomplishments," one woman wrote。

"Seems like a caricature of a Bratz doll," wrote another man, referring to a line of sultry-eyed, mini-skirted fashion dolls. "Overall first impression isn't strong."新研究發現，那些穿性感衣服的十三歲以下的小女孩被認爲在能力和品德上都不如那些穿適合自己年齡衣服的小孩。

早先的研究就已發現，人們認爲穿着暴露的成年女性不如那些衣着保守的女性有能力。一項發表在《個性與社會心理學雜誌》11月刊上的研究甚至還發現，穿着暴露的男性也遭到同樣的成見。

研究報告的高級作者、美國俄亥俄州肯尼恩學院的社會心理學家莎拉•穆爾嫩說，給小女孩穿的衣服變得越來越性感。去年，穆爾嫩和其同事開展的一項研究發現，大型零售店賣的兒童服裝有30%含性感元素。

研究人員招募了162名學生(其中有106名是女性)來觀看一個金髮白皮膚的青春期前小女孩穿三套不同衣服的照片，並讓他們給小女孩的能力和智力等品質打分。在“適合孩子”的情況下，小女孩穿的是袖口打褶的灰色襯衫、牛仔褲和綁帶鞋。在“隱約性感”的情況下，小女孩穿的是一條豹紋的及膝裙，豹紋花案經常出現在性感衣服中，但這一衣着並沒有過分性感。

在最後一種情況下，小女孩穿的是一件顯然十分性感的衣服：一條超短裙搭配一件豹紋開襟絨線衫和手提包。

在一些照片中，小女孩被描述成一個喜歡讀書的普通的五年級小學生和學生會成員。在其他照片中，她被描述成班裏讀書最好的拔尖學生和學生會主席。

穆爾嫩說，正如你所預料的，把小女孩描述成一個成績出色的人確實促使人們對她的智力和能力給出更高的評價。然而，當小女孩穿過分性感的服裝時，人們對她的才華、能力、決斷力和智力的評價卻一致下降了，對自尊和品行的評價也低於她衣着樸素時的評價。

事實上，當研究人員在實驗後向參與者尋求反饋時，許多人對自己的判斷都有清楚的意識。

一名女性寫道：“即使在意識到她的成就後，我還是依據她的穿着來做出設想。”

另一名男性寫道：“就好像布拉茨娃娃的誇張版”，他指的是一組眼神撩人、穿超短裙的時裝娃娃。“總的來說第一印象並不好。”