Women use "indirect aggression" to slander other women as a part of intrasexual competition, a latest study by McMaster University, Canada, shows.
Even after reaching adulthood, women carry "school girl behavior." They tend to spread rumors about the women they dislike, criticize their appearance and malign their reputation.
For the study, the researchers studied the behavior of 86 heterosexual women. These participants were paired and told that the study was related to friendship between women.
Then the researchers made an attractive yet simple blonde woman, a "conservative confederate," interact with one half of the pairs. Then the same women appeared before the other half dressed flashily in a short skirt, low-cut blouse, and boots and let her hair loose. The researchers named her as the "sexy confederate."
Using a 'bitchiness scale,' the researchers measured the participants' 'indirect aggression.' They were assessed on the basis of body language like glaring, laughing sarcastically, rolling eyes and checking the confederate out.
"One participant went as far as saying that the sexy confederate was dressed that way in order to have sex with the professor," Tracy Vaillancourt, a psychology professor at the University of Ottawa told The Atlantic. Other such participant rudely commented on the 'sexy confederate' before she left the room.
The researchers found that the group that was interrupted by the "sexy confederate" scored more on the 'bitchiness scale.' Furthermore, they found that the women who appeared more friendly with the confederate bitched more than strangers.
"When we aggress against somebody, we do it indirectly. When men aggress against others, a lot of times it's direct, it's verbal," said Vaillancourt, CBS News reported. "We exclude people from the peer group, we give the silent treatment ... We'll spread rumors about the person, so we'll disparage their appearance, we'll suggest that they're promiscuous, those sorts of things."
