Misogynous messages in the media increase hostility to women: Evidence from a meta-analysis of 257 experimental and...

Media often portray women in misogynous, discriminatory, and negative ways. By considering different types of misogynous media content and hostile responses to women, this meta-analysis of experimental and nonexperimental studies examined the relation between exposure to misogynous media content and hostility to women. The meta-analytic review included 257 eligible studies published across 47 years and encompassed 132,933 participants, thereby yielding 1,421 effect sizes. Analyses used robust variance estimation to examine the relationship between misogynous media exposure and hostility. On average, such exposure was associated with greater hostility to women (g = 0.26, 95% confidence interval, CI [.21, .30]), in both experimental (g = 0.28, 95% CI [.22, .35]) and nonexperimental (g = 0.24, 95% CI [.18, .29]) studies. Notably, exposure to misogynous media content affected both women and men, although the effect tended to be stronger among men (g = 0.27) than women (g = 0.20). The 95% prediction interval for the overall effect ranged from -0.52 to 1.04, indicating large heterogeneity. In fact, violent content easily recognized as antiwomen resulted in greater hostility among men (g = 0.38) but not women (g = 0.03), whereas humiliating (g = 0.29) and pornographic (g = 0.21) content yielded similarly hostile responses in women and men. In addition, adolescent participants were more influenced (g = 0.32) than participants in their midlate adulthood (g = 0.17), but they did not differ from those in their early adulthood (g = 0.27). Overall, this research showed that misogynous media content elicits demeaning attitudes and hostile behaviors directed toward women, thereby perpetuating the gender hierarchy defined by women's lower status in society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).