Toxic speech, fragile trust: How hostile comments about women shape their trust? - Part 2

The study consists of two parts. In the first part, participants will be passively exposed to a series of misogynistic posts, i.e., they will be presented with misogynistic content not directed at them personally. In the second part of the study, the dependent variable—trust—will be measured, operationalized both as a self-reported response to questionnaire items and as the amount of money transferred by the participant in the so-called investment game (also referred to as the trust game). Participants will play three rounds of the game, serving as the investor in each round. In every round, participants will interact with a different partner, according to the following scenario: a man, a woman, and a person of unspecified gender. In the self-report measure, women will be asked to indicate their level of trust toward men, women, and people in general. The main independent variables subject to manipulation are: 1. Gender of the author of the comment: man vs. woman. 2. Type of comment received: misogynistic vs. neutral. 3. Gender of the person being evaluated by the participant in terms of perceived trustworthiness (in the second part of the study; three variants: man, woman, person of unspecified gender – both behavioral and self-report measures). The study will be complemented with a questionnaire section measuring the following metrics: demographic characteristics (age, education, place of residence, native language), social media use, political preferences, and socioeconomic status.