Dr Francesca Guizzo
Academic and research departments
School of Psychology, Social Emotions and Equality in Relations (SEER) research group, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.About
Biography
I received my PhD in Psychology at the University of Padova (Italy) in 2016, under the supervision of prof. Mara Cadinu and co-supervision of prof. Anne Maass. I spent part of my PhD (September 2014 - June 2015) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (US) as a visiting scholar. Between 2016 and 2021, I was a postdoc fellow at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology of the University of Padova (Italy). I joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in Social Psychology in June 2021. My main research area concerns women's sexual objectification, spanning from its causes and consequences to possible interventions.
Areas of specialism
My qualifications
ResearchResearch interests
The overarching theme of my research revolves around the issue of understanding the psychological consequences of belonging to a low-status group, with a focus on women. Specifically, I am interested in identifying crucial factors that impede/promote their well-being, optimal performance, and positive social change. I am currently working on projects related to the consequences of media sexualization on body image and the role of sexual objectification of women in fueling gender economic inequalities.
Current research topics:
- MEDIA EFFECTS: I am interested in investigating the effects of idealized/sexualized media images on both women’s and men’s body image concerns as well as possible positive protective effects of media literacy and body positive interventions. Another line of research I am interested in is related to media literacy interventions aiming at motivating men to engage in gender equality collective actions.
- GENDER ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES and OBJECTIFICATION: Another ongoing project concerns (self-) objectification as a possible process underlying the gender pay gap. Specifically, I am investigating how objectification of women affect wage and hiring decisions, and how self-objectification affects expected career success and wage entitlement.
- ZOOM and OBJECTIFICATION: As video chatting has emerged as a leading form of communication for work, education, and socialization during the COVID-19 pandemic, in this project I am interested to investigate potential detrimental effects on body satisfaction and self-objectification processes in general, as well as potential benefits in terms of lower objectification of the speaker/teacher.
I am interested in supervising students on projects in these topics, but I am happy to discuss other ideas related to the areas of sexual objectification, sexual harassment, mass and social media, gender economic inequalities and gender stereotyping more in general.
Research interests
The overarching theme of my research revolves around the issue of understanding the psychological consequences of belonging to a low-status group, with a focus on women. Specifically, I am interested in identifying crucial factors that impede/promote their well-being, optimal performance, and positive social change. I am currently working on projects related to the consequences of media sexualization on body image and the role of sexual objectification of women in fueling gender economic inequalities.
Current research topics:
- MEDIA EFFECTS: I am interested in investigating the effects of idealized/sexualized media images on both women’s and men’s body image concerns as well as possible positive protective effects of media literacy and body positive interventions. Another line of research I am interested in is related to media literacy interventions aiming at motivating men to engage in gender equality collective actions.
- GENDER ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES and OBJECTIFICATION: Another ongoing project concerns (self-) objectification as a possible process underlying the gender pay gap. Specifically, I am investigating how objectification of women affect wage and hiring decisions, and how self-objectification affects expected career success and wage entitlement.
- ZOOM and OBJECTIFICATION: As video chatting has emerged as a leading form of communication for work, education, and socialization during the COVID-19 pandemic, in this project I am interested to investigate potential detrimental effects on body satisfaction and self-objectification processes in general, as well as potential benefits in terms of lower objectification of the speaker/teacher.
I am interested in supervising students on projects in these topics, but I am happy to discuss other ideas related to the areas of sexual objectification, sexual harassment, mass and social media, gender economic inequalities and gender stereotyping more in general.
Teaching
- PSY1019 - Social Psychology with Research Methods 1 (Module convener)
- PSY2016 - Social Psychology with Research Methods 2 (Contributing Lecturer)
- PSYM093 - Fundamental Concepts in Social Psychology with Research Methods (Contributing Lecturer)
- PSYM130 - Academic Research Training (Contributing Lecturer)
2021-22
- PSY3101/PSY108 - Social Cognition (Module convener)
Publications
Highlights
Guizzo, F., Canale, N., & Fasoli, F (2021). Instagram Sexualization: When posts make you feel dissatisfied and wanting to change your body. Body Image, 39, 62-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.06.005
Bosson, J. K., Jurek, P., Vandello, J. A., [...] Guizzo, F., […] & Van Laar, C. (2021). Psychometric properties and correlates of precarious manhood beliefs in 62 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022121997997
Galdi, S., & Guizzo, F. (2021). Media-induced Sexual Harassment: The routes from sexually objectifying media to sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 84, 645–669. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01196-0
Gramazio, S., Cadinu, M., Guizzo, F., & Carnaghi, A. (2021). Does sex really sell? Paradoxical effects of sexualization in advertising on product attractiveness and purchasing intention. Sex Roles, 84, 701-719. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01190-6
Guizzo, F., & Cadinu, M. (2020). Women, not objects: testing a sensitizing web campaign against female sexual objectification to temper sexual harassment and hostile sexism. Media Psychology. Advance online pubblication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2020.1756338
Cadinu, M., Carnaghi, A., & Guizzo, F. (2020). Group meaningfulness and the causal direction of influence between the ingroup and the self or another individual: Evidence from the Induction-Deduction Paradigm. PloS one, 15(3), e0229321. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229321
Guizzo, F., Moè, A., Cadinu, M., & Bertolli, C. (2019). The role of implicit gender spatial stereotyping in mental rotation performance. Acta Psychologica, 194, 63-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.01.013
Fasoli, F., Cadinu, M., Carnaghi, A., Galdi, S., Guizzo, F., & Tassara, L. (2018). How do you self-categorize? Gender and sexual orientation self-categorization in homosexual/heterosexual men and women. Personality and Individual Differences, 123, 135-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.011
Guizzo, F., Cadinu, M., Galdi, S., Maass, A., & Latrofa, M. (2017). Objecting to Objectification: Women's Collective Action Against Sexual Objectification on Television. Sex Roles, 77, 352-365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0725-8
Guizzo, F., & Cadinu, M. (2017). Effects of Objectifying Gaze on Women’s Cognitive Performance: the Role of Flow Experience and Internalization of Beauty Ideals. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12170
Presence of gay men in mainstream media may have a positive impact on viewers' attitude change. However, gay male characters are often stereotypically portrayed as feminine, and no research has yet explored audiences' reactions to counter-stereotypical gay characters. Heterosexual Italian men (N = 158) were exposed to a clip portraying (i) a stereotypical feminine gay male character, (ii) a counter-stereotypical masculine gay male character, or (iii) a nature documentary. Compared to the other conditions, exposure to the counter-stereotypical gay character increased discrimination toward gay men, in the form of anti-gay jokes, the higher the level of participants' prejudice against gay men. Results further demonstrated that this effect was explained by reduced perceived stereotypicality of the character. Findings are in line with the social identity theory prediction that when gay men (outgroup) are perceived as too similar, and potentially threaten the group identity, heterosexual men would attempt to restore ingroup distinctiveness.