The ACME shop: A paradigm to investigate working (self-) objectification

ABSTRACT

The paper presents an open usable tool, the ACME shop paradigm, for experimentally studying self-objectification due to objectifying work activities. The paradigm consists of a simulation in which participants are asked to perform an objectifying (repetitive, fragmented, and other directed) vs a non-objectifying work activity. Two studies tested the construct (convergent and discriminant) validity of the paradigm by showing its effectiveness in inducing different facets of working self-objectification – but not other forms of dehumanization – in laboratory and online settings. In the objectifying condition, participants self-objectified more, that is they self-attributed less human mental state and self-perceived as more instrument-like than participants in the non-objectifying and control (an activity characterized by objectifying features but not related to the work domain) conditions. Moreover, the convergent and discriminant validity of the paradigm in inducing self-objectification, and no other type of dehumanization, was demonstrated by the significant impact of objectifying condition on self-attribution of both agency and experience and not on self-perception as animal-like. Applications of the paradigm will be discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Work
• computer activity
• self-objectification
• mental states attribution

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b and osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b4 acmeshop.github.io/ACME_shop/.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b4 and http://osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b4acmeshop.github.io/ACME_shop/.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1. All the materials for the free use of ACME shop paradigm can be found at the link acmeshop.github.io/ACME_shop/.

2. Data and materials for all experiments are available at osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b4.

3. To test the validity of the considered scales, we performed a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on each measure. The analyses confirmed that all the items loaded on the first principal component (Objectifying level loadings:.53 –.86; SMSA loadings:.48 –.81).

4. Supplementary Materials are available at the link osf.io/7ya4u/?view_only=b4f2f70f2862497b87cd5590430838b4.

5. The PCA_s confirmed that all the items loaded on the first principal component for the Control Features (loadings:.44 −.79), Instrument-like (loadings:.88 –.91), Animal-like (loadings:.88), Agency (loadings:.66 –.79) and Experience (loadings:.38 –.85) measures. Instead, there were loadings issues for one item of the Human-like measure (“someone” loading:.17; other item loadings:.84 –.92) and one item of the Demands Features measure (“It gives you enough time to complete the job” loading:.27; other item loadings:.59 –.85). Therefore, these two items were not included in the main analysis.

6. In order to control for the gender impact in the present studies, we reconducted the MANOVAs by considering gender as covariate. The covariate had no significant effect on the dependent variables in Study 1 (all p_s >.739), while in Study 2 it had a significant effect on instrument-like (p =.051) and agency (p =.048) indexes, whereas all the other variables were not impacted by participants’ gender (all p_s >.27). Crucially, the pattern of findings considering this covariate remained completely similar to the results reported in the main text.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristina Baldissarri

Cristina Baldissarri received her PhD in Social Psychology in 2017 and now she is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Milano-Bicocca.  Her main research interests focus on intergroup objectification and self-objectification in the work domain, dehumanization, inequalities.

Alessandro Gabbiadini

Alessandro Gabbiadini is assistant professor of Social Psychology at the University of Milano Bicocca, department of Psychology. His main research interests focus on violent videogames, virtual communities, social interaction in online environments and the effects of new technologies on human behavior in general.

Luca Andrighetto

Luca Andrighetto is associate professor of Social Psychology at the University of Genova. He received his PhD from the University of Padova and he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Milano-Bicocca. His main research interests regard intergroup attributions of humanity, intergroup helping, reconciliation, video games and aggressiveness.

Chiara Volpato

Chiara Volpato is Full Professor in Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca. Her main fields of research are: social identity and intergroup relations, prejudice, minority influence, the socio-psychological analysis of historical and literary texts, dehumanization processes.