Abstract

In this research, we tested whether attitudes toward international couples vary based on couple composition and participant gender, and whether these variations are serially explained by several variables (likelihood that the woman/descendants will reside in Korea, reproductive objectification, sexual objectification, and anticipated national resource loss). In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (international couple composition: Korean woman-foreign man vs. Korean man-foreign woman), and read a brief description of the couple. Participants then completed measures of negative attitudes/feeling temperature score toward the couple, the likelihood that the woman/descendants would reside in Korea, and anticipated national resource loss. For the Korean man-foreign woman couple, neither negative attitudes nor feeling temperature score differed by participant gender. In contrast, for the Korean woman-foreign man couple, male participants reported significantly more negative attitudes and lower feeling temperature score than female participants. These gender differences were serially explained by male participants’ lower perceived likelihood that the woman/descendants would reside in Korea, which in turn led to greater anticipated national resource loss. Focusing exclusively on the Korean woman-foreign man couple, Study 2 employed a correlational design to replicate the gender differences in attitudes and test whether these gender differences are serially mediated by reproductive objectification or sexual objectification, together with anticipated national resource loss. After reading the same couple vignette, participants reported negative attitudes, feeling temperature score, reproductive objectification, sexual objectification, and anticipated national resource loss. Consistent with Study 1, male participants again had more negative attitudes and felt a lower temperature score towards the Korean woman-foreign man couple than female participants. These differences were serially mediated by male participants’ greater tendency to view the woman as a reproductive (vs. sexual) object than female participants, which was associated with higher levels of anticipated national resource loss.