The Individual and Social Benefits of Confronting Sexism with Humor

Confrontation of sexism can entail individual costs and backlash. Across three experiments (N = 495), conducted in various countries and gender-equality contexts, we examined whether humorous confrontation (compared with serious and non-confrontation) can challenge sexism while preserving intragroup relationships and status. Using vignette studies, small-group videos, and actual text-based chat conversations, and including a baseline condition with no information on confrontation, we disentangled potential negative effects of serious confrontation from positive effects of humorous confrontation. Contrary to predictions, neither confrontation type reliably reduced perceptions of sexist norms (H1). However, across all three studies, humorous confrontation consistently repaired threats to women's standing (H2) while maintaining group cohesion (H3), and preserving the offender’s status. Together, these findings shift the focus from individual-level benefits and costs to group-level consequences of confrontation, broadening conceptions of effectiveness beyond norm change and personal backlash risks to include the preservation of group functioning.