A postcolonial feminist critique of harem analogies in psychological science
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Bharj, Natasha
Hegarty, Peter
Abstract / Description
Since the 1930s, psychologists have used the term harem as an analogy for social relations among animals. In doing so they draw upon gendered and racial stereotypes located in the history of colonialism. We present an experimental study on the harem analogy as a means of confronting and challenging colonial undercurrents in psychological science. We investigated whether the use of this colonialist image in studies of animal societies could subtly affect thinking about Middle Eastern Muslim people. Two-hundred and forty-nine participants read about animal societies; in the experimental condition these were described as “harems” and accompanied by the analogy of harems in Middle Eastern Muslim societies. In the two control conditions, animal societies were either described as “groups” or “harems”, with no mention of the analogy. In the experimental condition, participants falsely remembered descriptions of Muslim people of the Middle East as applying to animals. This finding replicates the “resistance is futile” effect (Blanchette & Dunbar, 2002; Perrott, Gentner, & Bodenhausen, 2005) by which false remembering of analogical statements as previously seen literal descriptions is taken as suggestive of analogical mapping between two disparate concepts. As such, the study contributes to debate between feminist and evolutionary psychology about the value-neutrality of psychology, and to postcolonial critique of the partiality of mainstream psychological accounts of the universality of nature and society.
Keyword(s)
postcolonial feminism harem analogy metaphor scientific racism feminist psychology resistance is futile frameworkPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2015-08-21
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
3
Issue
1
Page numbers
257–275
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Bharj, N., & Hegarty, P. (2015). A postcolonial feminist critique of harem analogies in psychological science. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 257–275. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.133
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Bharj, Natasha
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Hegarty, Peter
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-26T12:45:01Z
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Made available on2018-11-26T12:45:01Z
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Date of first publication2015-08-21
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Abstract / DescriptionSince the 1930s, psychologists have used the term harem as an analogy for social relations among animals. In doing so they draw upon gendered and racial stereotypes located in the history of colonialism. We present an experimental study on the harem analogy as a means of confronting and challenging colonial undercurrents in psychological science. We investigated whether the use of this colonialist image in studies of animal societies could subtly affect thinking about Middle Eastern Muslim people. Two-hundred and forty-nine participants read about animal societies; in the experimental condition these were described as “harems” and accompanied by the analogy of harems in Middle Eastern Muslim societies. In the two control conditions, animal societies were either described as “groups” or “harems”, with no mention of the analogy. In the experimental condition, participants falsely remembered descriptions of Muslim people of the Middle East as applying to animals. This finding replicates the “resistance is futile” effect (Blanchette & Dunbar, 2002; Perrott, Gentner, & Bodenhausen, 2005) by which false remembering of analogical statements as previously seen literal descriptions is taken as suggestive of analogical mapping between two disparate concepts. As such, the study contributes to debate between feminist and evolutionary psychology about the value-neutrality of psychology, and to postcolonial critique of the partiality of mainstream psychological accounts of the universality of nature and society.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationBharj, N., & Hegarty, P. (2015). A postcolonial feminist critique of harem analogies in psychological science. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 257–275. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.133en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1357
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1740
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.133
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Keyword(s)postcolonial feminismen_US
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Keyword(s)haremen_US
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Keyword(s)analogyen_US
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Keyword(s)metaphoren_US
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Keyword(s)scientific racismen_US
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Keyword(s)feminist psychologyen_US
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Keyword(s)resistance is futile frameworken_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleA postcolonial feminist critique of harem analogies in psychological scienceen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers257–275
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Volume3
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record