How do disadvantaged groups perceive allies? Women’s perceptions of men who confront sexism in an egalitarian or paternalistic way Estevan Reina, Lucía Lemus Martín, Soledad De López Megías, Jesús Radke, Helena R. M. Becker, Julia C. McGarty, Craig Ally perception Egalitarian confrontation Paternalistic confrontation In this research, we focused on women's perception of men as allies depending on the type of confrontation. We conducted four experimental scenario studies (Study 1 and 2 in a bar setting; Study 3 and 4 in a workplace setting) where a man confronted a sexist comment using either an egalitarian or paternalistic argument. Results showed that women are more likely to perceive egalitarian (vs. paternalistic) confronters as allies (Studies 1–4). This is explained by the fact that they contribute to reducing power asymmetries (decreasing perceived interpersonal power differences: Studies 2 and 4; or increasing women's empowerment: Studies 3 and 4). Furthermore, the egalitarian (vs. paternalistic) confrontation positively impacts interpersonal and intergroup relations, and this is explained by the perception of the confronter as an ally (Studies 1, 2 and 4). We discuss the role of disadvantaged group members’ perception of advantaged group members to disentangle the complexity of alliances. 2024-05-16T11:48:50Z 2024-05-16T11:48:50Z 2024-03-07 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Estevan-Reina, L., de Lemus, S., Megías, J. L., Radke, H. R. M., Becker, J. C., &McGarty, C. (2024). How do disadvantaged groups perceive allies? Women’s perceptions of men who confront sexism in an egalitarian or paternalistic way. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3059 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/91883 10.1002/ejsp.3059 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Wiley