A study conducted in Poland found that people who are agreeable, intellectually curious, and uphold positive norms of reciprocity are less likely to objectify others. In contrast, people who tended to exploit others or who had a strong sense of entitlement were more likely to objectify others. This study Current issues in personality psychology.
Objectification of people is the act of treating people primarily as objects rather than as fully human beings with thinking, feeling, and autonomy. This involves ignoring individuality and reducing someone to their body, appearance, usefulness, or a single characteristic (or set of characteristics). Objectification is most commonly discussed in relation to sexual objectification, but it can also occur in the workplace, politics, or everyday social interactions.
People objectify others for several reasons, including social norms that value status, beauty, and productivity over inner qualities. Media and advertising often reinforce objectification by portraying people as commodities to be valued or consumed. Psychologically, objectification simplifies social cognition by reducing complex individuals to simpler categories. It can also serve power relationships, as seeing someone as an object makes it easier to control, exploit, or dismiss that person.
Study author Kinga Lahovici Tabacek and her colleagues wanted to identify personality traits associated with a general tendency to objectify others. They defined objectification as the tendency to perceive others in a reductive, instrumental, and dehumanizing way, regardless of context. “Instrumental” here means recognizing individuals only as useful objects, and “dehumanization” means recognizing individuals as non-subjects, devoid of agency or uniqueness.
Study participants were 372 Polish adults belonging to the Ariadna Research Panel, an online survey platform that allows researchers to collect data primarily in the fields of market research and social sciences. The average age of participants was 34 years. There were 222 women among the participants.
Participants completed an online survey that included measures of general tendency to objectify people (Modified Objectification Scale), Big 5 personality traits (International Personality Item Pool – Big 5 Factor Markers – 20), Dark Triad personality traits (Dirty Dozen Scale), vulnerable narcissism (Irritable Narcissism Scale), psychological entitlement (Psychological Entitlement Scale), and interpersonal relationships. Exploitativeness (Interpersonal Exploitativeness Scale), and Norms of Reciprocity (Positive and Negative Reciprocity Norms subscales of the Personal Norms of Reciprocity Questionnaire).
Results showed that people with salient traits of agreeableness and those who endorse positive reciprocity norms were less likely to objectify others. People who were more intellectually curious (a trait of intelligence) were also less likely to objectify others, but this association was relatively weak. Agreeableness is a personality trait that reflects compassion, trust, and concern for others, whereas endorsement of the positive reciprocity norm refers to the belief that people should reciprocate kindness and favors received from others with similar positive actions.
On the other hand, individuals who were more exploitative, felt more entitled, and had more pronounced dark personality traits were more likely to objectify others. Exploitability refers to the tendency to take advantage of others for personal gain, while entitlement is the belief that one is worthy of special treatment, privileges, or rewards regardless of merit or effort.
The dark personality traits assessed in this study were narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism (collectively known as the Dark Triad) and vulnerable narcissism. Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, a strong desire for admiration, and a sense of superiority over others. Machiavellianism involves manipulativeness, strategic calculation, and a focus on self-interest with little regard for morality. Psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity, callousness, low empathy, and lack of remorse for harmful actions.
Participants who were more likely to objectify others were also more likely to endorse negative reciprocity norms. Negative reciprocity norm is the belief that people should retaliate or cause harm if they are wronged or treated unfairly by others. Additionally, men were slightly more likely to objectify others than women.
Further statistical analysis revealed that only conformity, endorsement of positive reciprocity norms, intelligence, exploitativeness, entitlement, and gender contributed independently to predicting the tendency to objectify others. When all traits were analyzed together, the remaining dark personality traits (such as psychopathy and Machiavellianism) did not improve predictions, suggesting that exploitation and a sense of entitlement were core drivers of this behavior.
“Our findings suggest that objectification tendencies are predicted by an unwillingness to maintain positive relationships with others, low intellectual openness, high entitlement and exploitativeness, and a low tendency to respond positively to the favors of others,” the study authors concluded.
This research reveals the psychological basis of the tendency to objectify others. However, note that the study’s correlational design does not allow us to infer causality from these results.
The paper, “Who is more likely to perceive others as useful objects? The relationship between the general tendency to objectify others and basic and dark personality traits” was authored by Kinga Rahovic Tabacek, Beata E. Andrzejewska, Anna Juszkiewicz, and Jolanta Babiak.
