This article was downloaded by: [Nanyang Technological University]

On: 26 April 2015, At: 10:12

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,
UK

The Journal of Social

Psychology
Publication details, including instructions for authors
and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vsoc20

Stoicism: Its Relation to Gender,

Attitudes Toward Poverty, and
Reactions to Emotive Material
a a
Graham F. Wagstaff & Andrea M. Rowledge
a
Department of Psychology , The University of
Liverpool , England
Published online: 30 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Graham F. Wagstaff & Andrea M. Rowledge (1995) Stoicism: Its
Relation to Gender, Attitudes Toward Poverty, and Reactions to Emotive Material, The
Journal of Social Psychology, 135:2, 181-184, DOI: 10.1080/00224545.1995.9711421

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1995.9711421

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the
information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.
However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,
or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views
expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the
Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with
primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any
losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,
and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the
Content.
 This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.
Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,
sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is
expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 10:12 26 April 2015
 The Journal of Social Psychology- 135(2), 181-184

Stoicism: Its Relation to Gender,

Attitudes Toward Poverty, and
Reactions to Emotive Material
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 10:12 26 April 2015

GRAHAM F. WAGSTAFF
ANDREA M. ROWLEDGE
Department of Psychology
The UniversiTy of Liverpool, England

ABSTRACT. A scale was developed to test the hypotheses that stoicism would be more
prevalent in British men ( n = 30) than in British women (n = 32) and that stoicism would
be related to negative attitudes toward the poor. It was also hypothesized that stoics would
exhibit a weaker emotional reaction to stones that had emotive content. All three hypothe-
ses were supported. There was evidence that the Stoicism Scale had internal consistency
and some external validity.

FOLLOWERS OF STOICISM, attributed to Zeno of Citium about 300 B.C. (de

Vogel, 1959; Russell, 1979), believed that virtue, which was considered to be the
highest good, consisted of a will that was exercised in accordance with Nature
and hence uninfluenced by all mundane desire. Emotion, therefore, was to be
condemned and controlled.
The denial, suppression, and control of emotion remain distinguishing fea-
tures of the modem concept of stoicism. Thus, stoicism can be defined in terms
of three main characteristics: (a) lacking in emotional involvement, (b) lacking in
emotional expression, and (c) exercising emotional control or endurance. Assum-
ing that the construct of stoicism is valid, we predicted that people who scored
high on a measure of stoicism would report a weaker emotional reaction to mate-
rial that has emotive content than would people who scored low on the same
measure.

Readers may obtain a complete copy of the Stoicism Scale by writing to thefirst author:
Address correspondence to Graham E Wagstafi Department of Psychology, Eleanor
Rathbone Building, PO. Box 147, The Universiv of Liverpool, Liverpool, M 9 3BX. U.K.

181
 I82 The Jouinal of Social Psychology

The early stoics believed that people who experienced poverty and hardship
did not deserve sympathy and that compassionate acts toward them were to be
avoided. Indeed, the stoics believed that conditions such as poverty and hardship
provided an opportunity to practice virtue (de Vogel, 1959; Russell, 1979). This
belief is similar to the first author’s (1983) finding that supporters of the Protestant
work ethic, who believe that those who are willing to work and endure hardship
will succeed, are more likely to display negative attitudes toward the poor, as
measured by MacDonald’s ( 1972) Poverty Scale. Therefore, we predicted that
people who scored high on a measure of stoicism would have more negative atti-
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 10:12 26 April 2015

tudes toward the poor than people who scored low on the same measure.
Also, because evidence has suggested that women in Western countries score
higher than men do on measures of emotional intensity and emotional expressive-
ness (Diener, Sandvick, & Larsen, 1985; Dosser, Balswick, & Halverson, 1983),
we predicted (in accordance with the popular stereotype) that men would score
higher on a measure of stoicism and report a weaker emotional reaction to emo-
tive material than women would.
In the present study we tested these three predictions.

Method

Materials and Procedure

Sixty-two participants (32 women and 30 men who ranged from 20 to 50 years
old) from various occupations and backgrounds in Britain were administered the
Stoicism Scale. This scale consists of 20 statements aimed to tap popular views
of stoicism-for example, a lack of emotional involvement (“I do not get emo-
tionally involved when I see suffering on television.”), a dislike of free emotional
expression (“I tend to keep my feelings to myself.”), and an ability to enduse
emotion (“One should keep a stiff upper lip.”). Preliminary pilot research on a
small independent sample had indicated that the part-whole correlations for all
the items were significant ( r > .40; N = 20; p < .05, in each case). All the items
on the questionnaire were scored using a 5-point Likert-type scale with endpoints
of strongly disagree and strongly agree and a midpoint of neutral.
To control for acquiescence, we worded half the items so that agreement
would indicate a high stoicism score and the other half so that disagreement would
indicate a high stoicism score. Thus, the minimum score was 20, and the maxi-
mum score was 100. In addition to the Stoicism Scale, the participants were ad-
ministered MacDonald’s ( 197 1 , 1972) Poverty Scale, a measure of attitudes to-
ward the poor (“I can’t understand why people make such a fuss of the
disadvantaged state of the poor. Most of them could improve their condition if
they only tried.”).
The participants also listened to two short, true stories that had been recorded
on audiotape. The stories were emotionally disturbing. The first described the
 Wagstaff & Rowledge I83

lifestyle of a gang of young female prostitutes and drug addicts living in Bogoti,
Colombia. The second was an autobiographical account of the tragic experiences
of a young adult during a 5-year period-her sister had committed suicide, her
close friend had been raped, a friend had been crushed to death in a football
stadium, and her mother had recently died of cancer. After hearing each story, the
participants rated it on five 4-point rating scales that were designed to measure
emotional responsiveness: very pleasant-very unpleasant, not at all upsetting-
very upsetting, very distressing-not at all distressing, very depressing-not at all
depressing, not at all disturbing-very disturbing. The scales were balanced for
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 10:12 26 April 2015

acquiescence and scored correspondingly.

Results and Discussion

The mean score on the Stoicism Scale was 52.24 (SD = 13.22, N = 62). The
Spearman-Brown corrected split-half reliability coefficient of the Stoicism Scale
was high and significant (r = .90, N = 62, p < .001), and all item par-whole
correlations were significant (N = 62, range from .28, p < .03 to .78, p < .001),
indicating that the stoicism measure seemed to have acceptable internal consis-
tency.
The correlation between the responses to the two stories was significant (r =
.76, p < .001). Thus, we summed the participants’ responses to both stones to
produce an overall emotional reaction score (the higher the score, the greater the
reaction; minimum score = 8, maximum score = 40). The correlation between
the emotional responses to the stones (M = 23.83, SD = 5.81) and the stoicism
scores was negative and significant (r = -.78, N = 62, p < .001), a finding that
could be interpreted as an indication that the Stoicism Scale has some external
validity. High stoics claimed to be less emotionally affected by the stories.
As predicted, the men (M = 59.50, SD = 11.30) scored significantly higher
than the women did on stoicism (M = 45.44, SD = 11.21), F(1, 60) = 24.17, p
< .001. The men (M = 20.13, SD = 3.60) also indicated that they had signifi-
cantly weaker emotional reactions to the stones than the women did (M = 27.3 1,
SD = 5.35), F( 1,60) = 37.93, p < .001. There were no significant gender differ-
ences, however, in attitudes toward poverty. Also as predicted, the scores on the
Poverty Scale (M = 14.32, SD = 4.84) correlated significantly with the stoicism
scores ( r = .34, N = 62, p < .Ol), indicating that the more stoic individuals
tended to have less sympathetic attitudes toward the poor. Those individuals who
were less sympathetic toward the poor also reported being less emotionally af-
fected by the stories (r = -.31, N = 62, p < .03).
The data from this British sample seem to provide support for the general
construct of stoicism, to endorse the popular stereotypical view that men are more
stoic than women are, and to suggest that stoic attitudes may be related to unsym-
pathetic attitudes toward the poor.
 184 The Journal of Social Psychology

REFERENCES

Diener, E., Sandvick, E., & Larsen, R. (1985). Age and sex effects for emotional intensity.
Developmental Psychology, 21, 542-546.
de Vogel, C. J. (1959). Greek philosophy (vol. 3). Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
Dosser, D., Balswick, J., & Halverson, C. (1983). Situational context of emotional expres-
sion. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 375-381.
MacDonald, A. P. (1971). Relation of birth order to morality types and attitudes toward
the poor. Psychological Reports, 29, 732.
MacDonald, A. P.(1972). More on the Protestant ethic. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology. 36, 40-44.
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 10:12 26 April 2015

Russell, B. (1979). A history of Western philosophy. London: Unwin.

Wagstaff, G. F. (1983). Attitudes to poverty, the Protestant ethic and political affiliation: A
preliminary investigation. Social Behavior and Personalify 11, 45-47.

Received July I , I994