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Stigma and stigma by association in perceptions of straight allies
Abstract
As evidence builds for straight allies' contributions to battling sexual prejudice, barriers to assuming this role must be identified and dismantled. This study investigated stigma and stigma by association in perceptions of straight allies in a college population. Adjective rating items were completed by 505 participants who identified as heterosexual and not as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning. Results indicated stigma by association for the male heterosexual target, who was rated as more feminine in the ally than non-ally condition. Implications for research and ally training are discussed.
... First, due to their invisible nature some stigmas like sexuality can easily be assigned to anyone (see Chaudoir & Fisher, 2010). Therefore, supporters are often more vulnerable to such courtesy stigmas (for definition see Goffman, 1963;Goldstein, 2017;Kulik et al., 2008) by the virtue of expressed support for the stigmatized group (Swim et al., 1999). Research (e.g., Pryor et al., 2012) has shown that those who are stigmatized by association face the same negative consequences as those who actually carry said stigma. ...
... These consequences can range from exclusion from social interactions (Frosh, 2005) to more severe social punishments (e.g., persecution, imprisonment, or execution). Avoiding these consequences (for list see Goldstein, 2017) can be incentive enough for some supporters to avoid any proximity to the stigmatized despite holding generally supportive attitudes toward them. This narrative attests to the importance of protection in increasing the consistency between accepting and inclusive attitudes. ...
It is without a doubt that acceptance of sexual minorities is growing across the globe. Two major narratives are commonly assumed to be true about this increased acceptance. First, this acceptance is increased by proximity to the stigmatized. Second, this acceptance is enduring. These might not be entirely true as multiple attitudinal datasets frequently show a diversity among the accepting population, especially for those who express full acceptance of the stigmatized while refusing neighboring proximity to them. This inconsistency in acceptance is the main focus of this study. Using rejection of neighboring proximity to sexual minorities as a case for stigma and data from the Integrated Values Surveys (n = 52,796; 48.15% male), this study explores the similarities and differences between those who fully accept sexual minorities and those who express heightened sexual prejudice when rejecting neighboring proximity to sexual minorities. Logistic regression models show those in the accepting population who reject neighboring proximity to sexual minorities are more likely to be men, lower educated, highly religious, hold a traditional gender-related belief, and are attracted to right-wing political ideologies. While those with extreme sexual prejudice share sex, age, and traditional gender-related beliefs in rejecting neighboring proximity to sexual minorities, no effects for educational attainment and political ideology were discovered. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Male allies can also support one another as members of the movement for gender equity. It is important to note that male allies can be stigmatized as feminine, weak, and more likely to be gay than nonallies (Anderson, 2009;Goldstein, 2017;Rudman, Mescher, & Moss-Racusin, c a l l i ng on m a l e a l l i e s 2013); however, by creating a community of male allies, social norms can be changed such that male feminists are elevated to role models for other men. Men can demonstrate for other men, through social learning, how to act as allies to women (Bandura, 1977) and make a better workplace for not only women, but also men. ...
... Allies can experience stigma by association, a phenomenon that suggests proximity to stigmatized individuals (e.g., women) can lead to the devaluation of nonstigmatized individuals (e.g., male allies; Hebl & Mannix, 2003;Pryor, Reeder, & Monroe, 2012). This effect has been demonstrated by the documented perception of male allies as more feminine or weak compared to nonallies (Anderson, 2009;Goldstein, 2017;Rudman et al., 2013). In addition to these potential social ramifications, other common psychological phenomena may deter men from becoming allies to women. ...
As Gardner, Ryan, and Snoeyink (2018) state, their findings on gender representation in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology indicate that “the profession as a whole falls into the category of ‘not walking the talk’” (p. 385). We agree that it is imperative to understand the current state of gender inequity in our field while also actively working toward achieving gender equity. This article attempts to inspire each and every individual in I-O psychology to feel a personal responsibility to engage in behaviors that reduce gender disparities in our field. Although women are normatively the focus in fights for gender equity, men should be equal partners in these efforts. In this commentary, we focus on the contributions that male allies in I-O psychology can make in fostering gender equity. To be clear, we are not claiming that women need to be rescued by men; however, we do believe that I-O psychology can achieve the greatest progress toward gender equity when both women and men engage in supportive efforts. As Emma Watson said in her 2014 United Nations speech, “How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?” (UN Women, 2014). In times when political leaders and national laws may fail women, it is crucial that local communities—like the I-O community—adopt a clear stance in promoting gender equity. In this commentary, we define allyship, discuss the importance of male allies, suggest ways in which male allies can help promote gender equity in I-O psychology, and consider potential barriers to male allyship and ways to overcome them. The strategies that we propose are by no means exhaustive; rather, they are suggestions for how to initiate a larger movement.
... Drawing from research on stigma by association (Neuberg et al., 1994), O'Higgins-Norman (2009) noted that some school staff were reticent to address homophobic bullying because of their concerns about what it might imply to others about their own sexuality. This ties in with research which has shown that straight allies are viewed differently by non-allies as a result of their support for the LGBTQ + community (Goldstein, 2017). However, young people with LGBTQ identities are at greater risk of bullying, and experience profound negative effects (Black et al., 2023;Elipe et al., 2022;Espino et al., 2023;O'Malley et al., 2022), so it is paramount that school staff address these issues effectively to avoid them escalating. ...
Teachers play a crucial role in addressing school bullying, yet many factors can affect their approaches. Identity-based social exclusion, where children are excluded by peers due to their stigmatised identities, is a distinct form of lower bullying rates associated with more detrimental outcomes. The social inequalities and power imbalances reflected in this type of bullying have shown to originate from multiple levels of a socio-ecological system. This study applies a socio-ecological approach to investigate teachers’ responses to identity-based peer exclusion accounting for social identity, inequality, and diversity at teacher and school levels. Educators from UK primary and secondary schools (N = 422) completing an online survey were randomly allocated to an identity-based social exclusion vignette targeting different identities (i.e. ethnicity, appearance, disability, gender expression/sexuality) and asked about their responses (i.e. victim-blaming, perceived seriousness, empathy, self-efficacy, responsibility, intervention likelihood). Characteristics of teachers (gender, LGBTQ + , ethnical/cultural minority, ethnic/cultural similarity to students) and their schools (diversity, socioeconomic status, teacher training and school support) were also assessed. Hierarchical regression analyses showed significant effects of teacher and school characteristics on teachers’ responses to the identity-based bullying. Further, a series of school-type by vignette ANOVAs revealed some differences in teachers’ responses by type of school and targeted identity. The findings highlight some of the teacher and school level characteristics that contribute to how teachers respond to different types of identity-based bullying among students, set against the background of a socio-ecological approach relating to social inequality and identity. Practical implications for teacher training and school-level conditions are discussed.
... Unlike other potential stigmas (e.g., gender, age, and race), sexual orientation is not identifiable from a person's appearance. Given the invisible and concealable nature of sexual orientation, individuals who interact with LG people are thought to be more likely to be or become LG themselves (Goldstein, 2017;Sigelman et al., 1991). Although positively correlated (typically r ~ .45;Plant ...
Using a vignette methodology, this study examined reactions to same-gender versus other-gender flirtation in a sample of 445 German young adults: 320 participants with a heterosexual orientation and 125 participants with a lesbian or gay (LG) orientation. Even in LG-friendly societies as Germany, receiving advances from someone of the same gender might still evoke heterosexuals’ homonegativity. Another factor that might influence heterosexuals’ reactions to same-gender flirtation is the fear of being misidentified as LG (social contagion concerns). Contrary to hypothesis, results provided little evidence to classify heterosexual participants’ reactions to same-gender flirters as homonegative. Firstly, heterosexual participants showed the same degree of negative affect and avoidance behavior in the same-gender flirtation condition as LG participants did in the other-gender flirtation condition. Only positive affect scores were somewhat lower for heterosexual participants in the same-gender flirtation condition compared to LG participants in the other-gender flirtation condition. Secondly, when anti-LG attitudes and social contagion concerns were considered together, only social contagion concerns contributed to explaining variance in heterosexual participants’ response to same-gender flirters. Specifically, the impact of social contagion concerns on heterosexual participants’ avoidance of same-gender flirters was mediated by (lacking) positive affect, but not negative affect.
... For example, one study (Neuberg et al., 1994) exposed participants to a video of a heterosexual male college student engaging in conversation with another male friend. When participants were told that the friend was gay, they rated the student more negatively than when they believed his friend was heterosexual (see also Goldstein, 2017). While this work suggests that stigma can spread from those in the broader queer community to their friends, it is not yet clear whether these patterns emerge for family of transgender people. ...
The current research investigated whether mothers of transgender youth experience stigma‐by‐association. Mturk participants ( N = 489) were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a family in which the social identity (transgender, gay/lesbian, cisgender/heterosexual control) and gender (girl, boy) of a child was manipulated, while all other information was held constant. Results revealed stigma targeting mothers as a function of children's social identity (but not gender), such that mothers of transgender girls and boys were viewed substantially more negatively than identical mothers of cisgender/heterosexual youth. Moreover, this stigma was particularly robust among politically conservative participants. In contrast, mothers of gay/lesbian youth did not encounter systematic stigma, though they were sometimes perceived more negatively than mothers of cisgender/heterosexual youth. Results provide novel experimental evidence of stigma‐by‐association targeting mothers of transgender youth and raise serious concerns about the treatment of parents who seek to affirm their transgender children.
... As expressed by men, but also different women, the training helped internalise the importance of empowering everyone to stand up to violence, including heterosexual men (Rostosky et al., 2015), for which research shows it has been a bigger challenge to become allies for LGBTI + , for fear that their attractiveness and male identity will be called into question (Goldstein, 2017;Dessel et al., 2017). The New Alternative Masculinities' approach explained in the training course helps in this regard, showing that men who stand up are not only more egalitarian and fairer but more confident and attractive at different levels (Duque et al., 2021b;Zubiri-Esnaola et al., 2021). ...
Research shows that teachers and educators receive scarce scientific evidence-based training and tools to implement effective strategies to stop and prevent violence against LGBTI+ youth in educational institutions. Nonetheless, no data examines pedagogical contents and training initiatives that are providing these professionals with effective strategies and skills. This paper will cover this gap by gathering data on the impact of training workshops that were carried out in five European countries as part of a REC programme project. These workshops were designed to train educators in formal and non-formal contexts about scientific evidence-based content aimed at reaching social impact, such as bystander intervention and the dialogic model of violence prevention. As part of the training, they participated in the debate of a scientific article first hand, thus engaging with direct research. The content, organisation and instruments for data collection were co-created with relevant end-users and researchers who engaged at different meetings in an Advisory Committee. Aimed at collecting the impact of this training, 208 online pre- and post-questionnaires, and 12 semi-structured interviews were analysed. Results show that participants gain knowledge and confidence empowering themselves as active agents in the problem. Thanks to this co-creative and community science approach, participants affirmed they are thinking of applying upstander actions in their working contexts. The trust in the rigour of the content and the interest sparked towards science are also expressed.
... Mothers of children with a variety of stigmas based in physical, cognitive, and psychological conditions report similar perceived stigma by association (Davis & Manago, 2016), and are indeed judged more harshly, especially when the stigmatizing condition is seen as more controllable (e.g., delinquency; Sheeper & Vaughn, 2021). Family members of convicted criminals (Govern & Greco, 2002) and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community, are judged more harshly (Goldstein, 2017). Even shoppers can experience stigma by association (i.e., judged as "cheap") when they are simply physically close to another shopper who redeems coupons (Argo & Main, 2008). ...
Individuals with low self-esteem (LSE) may be devalued, whereas individuals with high self-esteem (HSE) are typically praised in Western society. People readily infer traits based on impressions of self-esteem. Across two studies, we address whether impressions of a hypothetical target person’s self-esteem influence judgments beyond the target’s personality. Results revealed that the target’s self-esteem influenced impressions of personality not only of the target, but of their mother and best friend. Moreover, when the target was portrayed as having LSE compared to HSE, participants made more pessimistic estimates of imagined future experiences with the target, even when the controllability of events varied. Overall, impressions of a target’s self-esteem spread beyond the target, influencing perceptions of their close associates and future events.
... We opted to include in our study partners of those who directly experienced pregnancy loss because individuals who are in relation to those who experience direct stigma may experience secondary stigma [80] or stigma by association [45]. Additionally, because many LGBTQ couples had to make the complex decision about which person should carry the pregnancy, there is an added component to the pregnancy and loss experience for LGBTQ people who directly experience loss and their partners that is different from cisgender, heterosexual people. ...
Pregnancy loss is a common yet stigmatized experience. We investigate (non)disclosure of pregnancy loss among LGBTQ people to known ties on identified social media as well as what constitutes ideal socio-technical disclosure environments. LGBTQ persons experiencing loss face intersectional stigma for holding a marginalized sexual and/or gender identity and experiencing pregnancy loss. We interviewed 17 LGBTQ people in the U.S. who used social media and had recently experienced pregnancy loss. We demonstrate how the Disclosure Decision-Making (DDM) framework explains LGBTQ pregnancy loss (non)disclosure decisions, thereby asserting the framework's ability to explain (non)disclosure decisions for those facing intersectional stigma. We illustrate how one's LGBTQ identity shapes (non)disclosure decisions of loss. We argue that social media platforms can better facilitate disclosures about silenced topics by enabling selective disclosure, enabling proxy content moderation, providing education about silenced experiences, and prioritizing such disclosures in news feeds. CAUTION: This paper includes quotes about pregnancy loss.
... It is important to note that the population of interest was restricted in two ways. Heterosexual allies were excluded from the sample since there is some evidence that those with associative stigma (due to close relationships with stigmatized others) experience similar outcomes (Goldstein, 2017;Quinn & Chaudoir, 2009). The current study focused more specifically on the comparison between stigmatized and nonstigmatized individuals. ...
Background
This study examines the importance of social support and psychological well-being for college students and highlights the unique challenges faced by lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. Interacting with members of similar identity groups is crucial in the development of one’s sense of self and place in the social world. However, these benefits are limited for people with a concealable stigma identity, given the increased difficulty of identifying similar others.Methods
The current study examined indicators of social support, psychological health (positive affect), and anxiety among college students between 2015 and 2017. To investigate the role of concealable stigma among these factors, responses from students (N = 33) who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) were compared with responses from heterosexual students (N = 43) who did not consider themselves allies of the LGB community.ResultsLGB students reported lower levels of psychological well-being and less social support than their heterosexual peers.Conclusions
The unique difficulties faced by members of concealable stigma groups when needing social support are considered, with the goal of increasing psychological health among college students with a minority sexual orientation.
... Stigma-by-association is most likely to occur when an individual holds negative attitudes towards the marginalized individual and when their associate voluntarily chooses to interact with the marginalized individual (Kulik et al., 2008). Historically, stigma-by-association has been documented in multiple studies across associates of various stigmatized groups (Hebl & Mannix, 2003;Phillips, Benoit, Hallgrimsdottir, & Vallance, 2012;Sack, Seidler, & Thomas, 1976), including associates of gay and lesbian communities (Goldstein, 2017;Neuberg, Smith, Hoffman, & Russell, 1994;Sigelman, Howell, Cornell, Cutright, & Dewey, 1991;Swim, Ferguson, & Hyers, 1999). Discrimination by association has important implications for the professional well-being of health and human services professionals, regardless of their actual identities. ...
We sought to examine perceived gender identity, perceived co-worker discomfort, and salary recommendations for youth counselors with transgender-related work experience. In two experiments conducted in 2016 and 2017, we randomized participants to view 1 of 2 résumés with varying work experience at a camp for transgender youth or a generic youth camp. Study 1 participants were 274 adult festivalgoers at a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride festival. Study 2 participants were 296 employed, heterosexual adults aged 35-60 from an online survey panel. In Study 1, viewing the résumé with transgender experience resulted in a statistically significantly higher likelihood of reporting the applicant was gender minority than cisgender (adjusted odds ratio = 3.76, 95% confidence interval [1.32, 10.72], p = .01), higher but not a statistically significant level of co-worker discomfort (aOR = 1.39, 95% CI [0.83, 2.32], p = .22), and, although not statistically significant, a 604, - 1,374 higher salary (95% CI [-1,931, 4,679], p = .41). Our results indicate the potential for stigma by association for professionals working with marginalized groups and suggest potential pathways through which employment discrimination may exacerbate existing inequities for gender minority people.
... But these data are almost always self-reported and retrospective, as opposed to external or objective assessments of the consequences of straight people's actions on the lives of LGBT+ people. This means that much of what we know about straight allies is rooted in straight allies' subjective assessments of themselves, or even other straight people's perceptions of allies (Goldstein 2017;cf. Brown and Ostrove 2013). ...
The identity label of “straight ally” has emerged in the contemporary discourse on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) rights movement to denote cisgender, heterosexual-identified individuals’ alliance with sexual (and to some extent, gender) minorities. Though the term is the subject of intense and sustained debate in the public sphere, it has received relatively less scholarly attention. Nonetheless, the contentious politics of privileged individuals and groups acting or advocating on behalf of marginalized individuals merits empirical and critical inquiry to understand the forms, social controversies, and political consequences of straight allies. This essay first offers a critical assessment of extant scholarship on straight allies, i.e., a state of the interdisciplinary field. Much of this research focuses on antecedents of ally behavior rather than investigate and interrogate the structural dimensions of social contexts that do or do not produce straight allies. Based on published research, I map steps toward a critical sociology of straight allies that foregrounds the interrelated concerns of social structures, contexts, and histories, the emergent and dynamic nature of ally identities, and intersectionality.
... Today, suicide remains associated with various stereotypes that trigger prejudice and discrimination towards people affected by suicide, a phenomenon referred to as suicide stigma (Sheehan, Dubke, & Corrigan, 2017). In pioneering work on stigma, Goffman (1963) argued that stigma not only affects those who carry a stigmatized characteristic, but also the people in their surroundings, later termed stigma by association (Goldstein, 2017;van der Sanden, Bos, Stutterheim, Pryor, & Kok, 2015). Similarly, suicide stigma not only affects people who experience suicidality, but also people who lost a significant other to suicide (i.e. ...
Perceived suicide stigma and consequent secrecy about suicide loss could contribute to impaired mental health among suicide loss survivors. Using online survey data from 195 suicide loss survivors, higher perceived suicide stigma was associated with more grief difficulties, higher suicidality, and less personal growth. Secrecy partly mediated the association between perceived suicide stigma and grief difficulties as well as suicidality and completely mediated the association between perceived suicide stigma and personal growth. Our findings suggest that supporting suicide loss survivors in coping with perceived suicide stigma could reduce secrecy about suicide loss and by this improve their mental health outcomes.
This chapter discusses the pitfalls and barriers of allyship in organizational contexts. It emphasizes how ineffective allyship can harm marginalized group members, often stemming from performative actions driven by the need for external validation. Barriers to effective allyship include social ostracism, emotional labor, cognitive and motivational barriers, lack of support from dominant group members, organizational constraints, and the complexities of intersectionality. Additional challenges involve allies’ reluctance to confront prejudice, paternalistic attitudes, white consciousness and fragility, and allyship burnout. The chapter underscores the need for continuous education, self-awareness, and systemic change within organizations to foster genuine allyship and create inclusive, equitable workplaces.
In recent years, support and education for LGBTQ+ students have gradually expanded at Japanese universities. Although LGBTQ+-related student organizations are presumed to serve as a particularly important site of support and education, there have been few studies focusing on the educational and psychological functions of these communities in the Japanese context. Therefore, this study explored (1) what LGBTQ+ students and non-LGBTQ+ students learned and how they have changed through the engagement in the organization, and (2) how they were able/unable to
continue their participation in these activities, using participatory action research. This research revealed that (1) encountering (other) LGBTQ+ people promoted empathetic understanding and deepened self-reflection, preparing members for the transformative action, and (2) the members were able to participate in the activities by being impacted by their affect, deconstructing the dichotomous framework of LGBTQ+ (tojisha)/non-LGBTQ+ (hi-tojisha), and creating an alternative group identity as the foundation for solidarity.
Keywords: LGBTQ+; Student Organization; Participatory Action Research; “Tojisha”, Solidarity
As the Bill of Rights prescribed by the South African Constitution stipulates,
all people, irrespective of gender, race and religion, have a right to equal
opportunities. This is articulated by the Gender Schema Theory as it stipulates
that some cohorts of learners are aligned to socially accepted behaviours while
other gender aschematic learners perform parallel to socially recognized
behaviours. Therefore, all learners are entitled to equal treatment and they
have a right to education, especially because South Africa is a country
renowned for its rainbow-nation characteristic, allowing it to accommodate
diverse citizens. It is for this reason that this paper investigated whether school
policy logistics have an impact on gender non-conforming learners in one rural
Senior Secondary in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Two teachers
were purposefully sampled as participants for this qualitative case study
research. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were administered. Using
thematic analyses led to the formation of themes which were used to discuss
findings. The study found that (i) there are dynamics in policy formulation and
also that (ii) there is a violation of school policies. This subjects them to social
exclusion and social control that marginalises gender minorities. The study
recommends that gender specific school policies be redefined to promote
gender neutral and inclusive schools, thus creating societies where everyone
is welcome and protected as suggested by the Constitution of the Republic of
South Africa.
As the Bill of Rights prescribed by the South African Constitution stipulates, all people, irrespective of gender, race and religion, have a right to equal opportunities. This is articulated by the Gender Schema Theory as it stipulates that some cohorts of learners are aligned to socially accepted behaviours while other gender aschematic learners perform parallel to socially recognized behaviours. Therefore, all learners are entitled to equal treatment and they have a right to education, especially because South Africa is a country renowned for its rainbow-nation characteristic, allowing it to accommodate diverse citizens. It is for this reason that this paper investigated whether school policy logistics have an impact on gender non-conforming learners in one rural Senior Secondary in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Two teachers were purposefully sampled as participants for this qualitative case study research. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were administered. Using thematic analyses led to the formation of themes which were used to discuss findings. The study found that (i) there are dynamics in policy formulation and also that (ii) there is a violation of school policies. This subjects them to social exclusion and social control that marginalises gender minorities. The study recommends that gender specific school policies be redefined to promote gender neutral and inclusive schools, thus creating societies where everyone is welcome and protected as suggested by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Keywords: Policy, Gender, Non-conforming, Diversity.
A new state requirement to teach an LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum inspired a teacher in New Jersey to create an American literature unit focused on intersectionality and allyship.
While the power of legal exclusion in stigmatisation is undeniable, its impact on ally behaviour has never been explored. This gap in stigma, law, and allyship is the focus of the present study. More specifically, this study shows how exclusion of the stigmatised from a legal system increases prejudicial attitudes expressed by allies. Using sexual prejudice, negative attitudes towards sexual minorities, as a proxy for stigma, this study explores ‘Superficial Allies’ or those who express full support for sexual minorities while refusing neighbouring proximity to them. Using attitudinal data from the Integrated Values Surveys (1981–2016), a large international (113 countries/regions) cross-sectional time-series survey, this study investigates the role of legal inclusion and social obedience in sexual prejudice expressed by those who fully support sexual minorities and those who fully reject them. The results of logistic regression models suggest that the absence of legal recognition and protection for sexual minorities at the national level increases expression of sexual prejudice among both allies and the stigmatisers. While social obedience plays a significant role in stigmatisers’ expression of sexual prejudice, it shows no significance for the ally population. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Background:
According to the stereotype content model, individuals with intellectual disability are perceived as having greater warmth-related traits (e.g. sociable and humorous) and fewer competence-related traits (e.g. independence and intelligence).
Methods:
We examined college students' perceived costs and benefits of mentoring peers with intellectual disability on stereotype-consistent (i.e. socially oriented) or inconsistent (i.e. academically oriented) tasks. Participants read about peer mentoring programmes that helped college students with or without intellectual disability on socially or academically oriented tasks before reporting their perceived costs and benefits of peer mentoring.
Results:
Mentoring students with intellectual disability was associated with greater benefits (i.e. connectedness between mentors and students, student utility and mentor benefits) on academically oriented tasks but greater costs for mentors on socially oriented tasks. Additionally, participants reported that they would experience greater positive feelings if they were to mentor a student with an intellectual disability. However, the perceived benefits to the student and some costs (i.e. discomfort, paternalism and costs to student) were not influenced by whether the student had an intellectual disability and the type of mentoring task.
Discussion:
Results indicate individuals find greater rewards working with individuals with intellectual disability on stereotype-inconsistent tasks and offer suggestions for postsecondary education peer mentoring programmes.
Navigating conception, pregnancy, and loss is challenging for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, who experience stigma due to LGBTQ identity, other identities (e.g., loss), and intersections thereof. We conducted interviews with 17 LGBTQ people with recent pregnancy loss experiences. Taking LGBTQ identity and loss as a starting point, we used an intracategorical intersectional lens to uncover the benefits and challenges of LGBTQ-specific and non-LGBTQ-specific pregnancy and loss-related online spaces. Participants used LGBTQ-specific online spaces to enact individual, interpersonal, and collective resilience. However, those with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., people of color and non-partnered individuals), faced barriers in finding support within LGBTQ-specific spaces compared to those holding privileged identities (e.g., White and married). Non-LGBTQ spaces were beneficial for some informational needs, but not community and emotional needs due to pervasive heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and a perceived need to educate. We conceptualize experiences of exclusion as symbolic annihilation and intersectional invisibility, and discuss clinical implications and design directions.
In social movements, activists may belong to either the disadvantaged or the advantaged group (e.g., Black racial justice activists or White racial justice activists). Across three experimental survey studies, we examined the content of these stereotypes by asking participants to freely generate a list of characteristics to describe each target group—a classic paradigm in stereotype research. Specifically, we examined the stereotypes applied to Black and White activists within racial justice movements (Study 1, n = 154), female and male activists within feminist movements (Study 2, n =134), and LBGT and straight activists within Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender movements (Study 3, n =156). We found that the “activist” category was consistently differentiated into subcategories based on group status: Disadvantaged group activists were stereotyped as strong and aggressive, whereas advantaged group activists were stereotyped as altruistic and superficial. These findings underscore the importance of considering status differences to understand the social perception of activists.
Though notable progress has been made in protections for LGBTQ people in the United States, they are still disproportionately victims of discrimination and harassment. Activism efforts on behalf of LGBTQ communities by heterosexual, cisgender people—known as cishet allies—are critical to maintaining and gaining civil rights. Social justice praxis encourages people with privileged identities, such as heterosexuals, to act on behalf of and in coalition with LGBTQ communities. The current study conducted a thematic qualitative content analysis of open-ended self-report data about activist behaviors and beliefs of 249 self-identified cishet allies. Results describe: types of activism, events that sparked activism, motivators for activism, and barriers to activism. Findings show that educating self and others are key activist behaviors while social media usage may mitigate barriers, such as perceived lack of social support and time. Findings are discussed in context of sample limitations and future research directions are outlined.
Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are school-based organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth and their allies that often attempt to improve school climate for sexual and gender minority youth. This meta-analysis evaluates the association between school GSA presence and youth’s self-reports of school-based victimization by quantitatively synthesizing 15 primary studies with 62,923 participants. Findings indicate GSA presence is associated with significantly lower levels of youth’s self-reports of homophobic victimization, fear for safety, and hearing homophobic remarks, and these results are robust, controlling for a variety of study-level factors. The findings of this meta-analysis provide evidence to support GSAs as a means of protecting LGTBQ+ youth from school-based victimization.
This chapter contextualizes the approach to oppression and social justice taken throughout this book. It provides a framework for readers who approach oppression and social justice from other positions to see what approaches we share, and where we differ. Our intention is to foster a broad and continuing dialogue among the many people who struggle, as we do, to find more effective ways to challenge oppressive systems and promote social justice through education. The chapter examines the enduring and the ever-changing aspects of oppression by tracing ways in which "commonsense" knowledge and assumptions make it difficult to see oppression clearly. We underscore the value of history for discerning patterns, often invisible in daily life, that reflect systemic aspects of oppression as it functions in different periods and contexts. We propose concepts that enable us to freeze and focus on specific forms of oppression in our teaching while staying cognizant of the shifting kaleidoscope of dynamic and complex social processes in which they are embedded. As historical circumstances change and newly emerging social movements take up issues of oppression in the United States and throughout the world, new definitions and understandings will evolve. Through highlighting the historical and contextual nature of this process here, we hope to avoid the danger of reifying systems of oppression as static or treating individuals as unidimensional and unchanging. History illustrates both how tenacious and variable systems of oppression are and how dynamic and creative we must continue to be to rise to the challenges they pose. The concepts and processes we present in this text are also continuously evolving. We hope the work presented in this second edition will contribute to an ongoing dialogue about social justice education theory and practice in ways that can have more potent and sustained impacts for justice, fairness and equality in our world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We examine the lived experiences of high-school students who participated in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-centered activism of some kind, highlighting the promise of gay-straight alliance groups by comparing the experiences of students at schools with gay-straight alliances (GSA schools) with the experiences of students at schools that did not have an LGBTQ-specific group (no-GSA schools). We compare students at GSA and no-GSA schools based on their experiences of harassment, experiences of support from authority figures, and patterns of friendships. We find that students at both types of schools experienced harassment and heard negative comments about lesbian and gay people. However, students at GSA schools reported more support from teachers and administrators than students at no-GSA schools, who have stories of teachers and administrators actively opposing equality for LGBTQ people. Students at GSA schools reported a wide variety of friendships across sexual identities, while students at no-GSA schools felt more isolated and withdrawn. This much-needed qualitative comparative analysis of students’ experiences brings a human face to the improved quality of life that schools with gay-straight alliances can bring to young people.
Scholars have long debated stigma's effects on the psychological functioning of its targets, with some concluding that stigma does not harm self-esteem (Crocker & Major, 198924.
Crocker , J. , &
Major , B. ( 1989 ). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma . Psychological Review , 96 , 608 – 630 . [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®], [CSA]View all references), and others taking the opposite stance. We propose a resolution to this debate by applying the theory of objective self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund, 197230.
Duval , S. , &
Wicklund , R. A. ( 1972 ). A theory of objective self-awareness . New York , NY : Academic Press . View all references) to the literature on the psychological consequences of stigma. We argue that public stigma has negative consequences when its targets focus objectively on their stigmatized status. Explicitly applying objective self-awareness theory to the stigma literature casts new light on past findings and suggests directions for future research.
The authors present a qualitative analysis of a process by which a research team of counselors-in-training confronted their heterosexist biases while investigating heterosexual attitudes toward sexual minorities. Members of the research team discovered that it was essential to reflect on and evaluate their attitudes, assumptions, and biases before they could conduct scientific research about affirmative attitudes toward lesbian, gay male, and bisexual male and female individuals. Self-reflective narratives written by each research team member were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methodology. Results yielded 10 general categories or themes. Implications for counseling theory, training, and future research are discussed.
Allies are frequently studied from the viewpoint of dominant group members. Three studies took a different perspective by investigating how people of color perceive both White allies and allies of color. Study 1 used content analysis of qualitative data from 80 people of color to describe eight major themes of ally perception. With samples of 182 and 195 people of color, Studies 2 and 3 employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to identify two subscales, informed action and affirmation, based on the themes. Both independent and paired samples t tests showed that people of color rating a White ally versus an ally of color perceived significantly less willingness to engage racial issues. Findings are discussed in relation to existing allies research.
Gender egalitarian men are vital for women’s progress, yet attitudes toward and beliefs about them are underinvestigated. In three experiments, women liked gender egalitarian men more so than men did, but both genders stigmatized them as more feminine, weak, and likely to be gay, compared with control male targets. This was true even when the gender egalitarian was an actual presidential candidate for the American Psychological Association (Experiment 3). We examined whether stigmatization was due to (a) gender egalitarians’ presumed affiliations with women and/or gay men (stigma-by-association); (b) the gay male feminist stereotype; or (c) a threat to men’s gender identity. Results supported stigma-by-association, but only for affiliations with women (not gay men). The gay male feminist stereotype was robust, but did not account for stigmatization, and men’s reactions to male gender egalitarians were independent of their gender identity. Implications of these findings for gender equality are discussed.
In his classic treatise, Goffman (196331.
Goffman , E. ( 1963 ). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity . New York , NY : Simon and Schuster . View all references) delineates between people who are discredited—whose stigma is clearly known or visible—and people who are discreditable—whose stigma is unknown and can be concealable. To what extent has research in the past 50 years advanced Goffman's original ideas regarding the impact of concealability on stigma management strategies and outcomes? In the current article, we outline a framework that articulates how stigma can “get under the skin” in order to lead to psychological and physical health disparities. Further, we consider when and to what degree concealability moderates these effects, creating divergent outcomes for the discredited and discreditable.
Objective:
To investigate the relationships between public stigma, stigma by association (SBA), psychological distress, perceived closeness, perceived heredity, and the type of family relationship among family members of people with a mental illness.
Method:
In this cross-sectional survey, data from 527 family members of people with a mental illness were analyzed.
Results:
Perceptions of public stigma were found to be positively related to SBA and SBA correlated with greater psychological distress and less perceived closeness. SBA also mediated relationships between perceived public stigma and psychological distress, and between perceived public stigma and perceived closeness. Further, among participants who reported SBA, immediate family members showed lower levels of perceived closeness than extended family members. Also, the perceived heredity of mental illness was associated with perceptions of public stigma and psychological distress.
Conclusion:
The findings suggest that family members of people with a mental illness could benefit from education on mental illnesses, their treatment, and the extent to which they are hereditary. Additionally, particular attention should be paid to the psychological needs that arise from being a caregiver of someone with a mental illness.
It has been 50 years since the publication of Goffman’s influential work Stigma: Notes on
the Management of Spoiled Identity. This special issue celebrates Goffman’s contribution
with 14 articles reflecting the current state of the art in stigma research. In this article, we
provide a theoretical overview of the stigma concept and offer a useful taxonomy of four
types of stigma (public stigma, self-stigma, stigma by association, and structural stigma).
We utilize this taxonomy to organize an overview of the articles included in this special
issue. Finally, we outline new developments and challenges in stigma research for the
coming decades.
To obtain reliable measures researchers prefer multiple-item questionnaires rather than single-item tests. Multiple-item questionnaires may be costly however and time-consuming for participants to complete. They therefore frequently administer two-item measures, the reliability of which is commonly assessed by computing a reliability coefficient. There is some disagreement, however, what the most appropriate indicator of scale reliability is when a measure is composed of two items. The most frequently reported reliability statistic for multiple-item scales is Cronbach’s coefficient alpha and many researchers report this coefficient for their two-item measure. Others however claim that coefficient alpha is inappropriate and meaningless for two-item scales. Instead, they recommend using the Pearson correlation coefficient as a measure of reliability. Still others argue that the inter-item correlation equals the split-half reliability estimate for the two-item measure and they advocate the use of the Spearman-Brown formula to estimate the reliability of the total scale. As these recommendations are reported without elaborating, there is considerable confusion among end users as to the best reliability coefficient for two-item measures. This note aims to clarify the issue.
Research on perceptions of homosexuals implicitly assumes that individuals think about lesbians as an undifferentiated group. By contrast, this paper investigated the stereotypes of the overall category as well as of different subgroups of lesbians within the frame of the stereotype content model (SCM). Participants (N = 70) rated the overall category and four subgroups on perceived warmth, competence, status, and interdependence (cooperative vs. competitive). Results showed that the overall category landed in the middle of the competence-warmth space, while the subgroups spread across the SCM dimensions. Moreover, perceived status and cooperation predicted competence and warmth stereotypes, respectively. Perceived competition failed to predict warmth stereotypes. The importance of these findings for lesbian stereotyping and for the SCM is discussed.
Heterosexually identified individuals can serve a crucial role as allies in eliminating sexual prejudice and the resulting
policies that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. However, few studies have systematically
examined the development of heterosexual allies. Consensual qualitative research methods (Hill et al., The Counseling Psychologist,
25, 517–572, 1997) were used to analyze individual interviews conducted with a community sample of 12 heterosexually identified participants
who demonstrated ally commitment through some form of LGBT activism. Findings revealed six domains that best described the
development of these heterosexual allies. Participants described early role models, an evolving recognition and understanding
of privilege and oppression, and conflict between an awareness of sexual prejudice and deeply held values of justice and equality.
Participants also described barriers to LGBT activism and the rewards of ally work. The authors discuss implications for heterosexual
ally development and, ultimately, for social justice and equality.
KeywordsIdentity-Social justice-Activism-Ally-Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual
This study investigated whether gay men and lesbians are assumed to have attributes stereotypically associated with the other
gender. Participants were 110 male and female undergraduates from a private, Midwestern, U.S. university. Participants were
randomly assigned to one of four conditions (i.e., gay male, lesbian, heterosexual female, heterosexual male) and rated their
given target on possession of traditionally masculine and feminine occupational interests, activities, and traits. Results
revealed that, despite some changes in the status of gay men and lesbians in society, stereotypes regarding sexual orientation
were similar to those seen in studies conducted 20years ago. Specifically, gay males were viewed as less masculine/more feminine
than heterosexual males, and lesbians were viewed as more masculine/less feminine than heterosexual females.
Stereotyped individuals vary in how chronically self-conscious they are of their stigmatized status, which Pinel (1999) has dubbed stigma consciousness. The current study investigated whether individual differences in stigma consciousness moderate the impact of gender stereotypes on the math performance of women. Results indicated that, under conditions designed to evoke stereotype threat (Steele, 1997), women high in stigma consciousness scored worse than women low in stigma consciousness on a math test. In the control (low threat) condition, stigma consciousness was unrelated to test performance. Possible mechanisms underlying this moderation are discussed.
Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are student-led, school-based clubs that aim to provide a safe environment in the school context for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, as well as their straight allies. The present study examines the potential for GSAs to support positive youth development and to reduce associations among LGBT-specific school victimization and negative young adult well-being. The sample includes 245 LGBT young adults, ages 21-25, who retrospectively reported on the presence of a GSA in their high school, their participation in their school's GSA, and their perceptions of whether or not their GSA was effective in improving school safety. Findings revealed that the presence of a GSA, participation in a GSA, and perceived GSA effectiveness in promoting school safety were differentially associated with young adult well-being and in some cases, buffered the negative association between LGBT-specific school victimization and well-being. Implications for future research and schools are discussed.
Stigma by association represents the process through which the companions of stigmatized persons are discredited. Conduits for stigma by association range from the strong and enduring bonds of kinship to the arbitrary occasions of being seen in the company of someone who is stigmatized. A theoretical model is proposed in which both deliberative and spontaneous processes result in the spread of stigma to the companions of stigmatized persons. Support for this model was found across 3 studies that examined how explicit and implicit stigma-relevant attitudes moderate stigma-by-association effects. When social relationships were meaningful (e.g., kinship), both explicit and implicit attitudes moderated the devaluation of stigmatized persons' companions. On the other hand, when social relationships appeared coincidental only implicit attitudes moderated companion devaluation.
Feminist and critical race theories offer the concept of intersectionality to describe analytic approaches that simultaneously consider the meaning and consequences of multiple categories of identity, difference, and disadvantage. To understand how these categories depend on one another for meaning and are jointly associated with outcomes, reconceptualization of the meaning and significance of the categories is necessary. To accomplish this, the author presents 3 questions for psychologists to ask: Who is included within this category? What role does inequality play? Where are there similarities? The 1st question involves attending to diversity within social categories. The 2nd conceptualizes social categories as connoting hierarchies of privilege and power that structure social and material life. The 3rd looks for commonalities across categories commonly viewed as deeply different. The author concludes with a discussion of the implications and value of these 3 questions for each stage of the research process.
It has been 50 years since the publication of Goffman's influential work Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. This special issue celebrates Goffman's contribution with 14 articles reflecting the current state of the art in stigma research. In this article, we provide a theoretical overview of the stigma concept and offer a useful taxonomy of four types of stigma (public stigma, self-stigma, stigma by association, and structural stigma). We utilize this taxonomy to organize an overview of the articles included in this special issue. Finally, we outline new developments and challenges in stigma research for the coming decades.
A critical ethnographic evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of an LGBT Safe Zone project. Results of the study suggest that the project has had a positive impact on the visibility of LGBT people and issues on campus, and has increased support for LGBT people.
Gay–Straight Alliances (GSAs) can foster action-oriented engagement among straight youth allies. The objective of the current exploratory study was to identify factors related to straight youth allies' greater engagement in GSAs. Participants included 156 straight members of 48 high school GSAs (78.2% female, Mage = 15.71) who attended regional GSA conferences in 2013. The survey asked youth to report their engagement in their GSA based on multiple items, and it measured factors external to the GSA and GSA-specific experiences that could be related to GSA engagement. In an overall model with all factors as independent variables and engagement as the dependent variable, initial positive feelings after the first few GSA meetings and having more current LGBT friends emerged as the clearest contributors. This study broadens our understanding of how factors external to the GSA and GSA-specific experiences relate to straight youths' role in promoting social change through their GSA engagement.
In two studies we tested the hypothesis that a subcategory relating to one social category as a subgroup (e.g., White businessman, Black person on welfare) frequently relates to a contrasting social category as a subtype (e.g., Black businessman, White person on welfare). In Study 1, we investigated how Whites currently perceive their own group and investigated the content of two major social categories relevant to the Black and White social categories (businessman, welfare), and how this content overlaps with the description of the White social group. In Study 2 we investigated the subtype/subgroup relationship in the context of social judgments concerning Blacks versus Whites. Our results supported the subtype/subgroup relationship hypothesis.
Organizational Identity presents the classic works on organizational identity alongside more current thinking on the issues. Ranging from theoretical contributions to empirical studies, the readings in this volume address the key issues of organizational identity, and show how these issues have developed through contributions from such diverse fields of study as sociology, psychology, management studies and cultural studies. The readings examine questions such as how organizations understand who they are, why organizations develop a sense of identity and belonging where the boundaries of identity lie and the implications of postmodern and critical theories' challenges to the concept of identity as deeply-rooted and authentic. Includes work by: Stuart Albert, Mats Alvesson, Blake E. Ashforth, Marilynn B. Brewer, George Cheney, Lars Thoger Christensen, C.H. Cooley, Kevin G. Corley, Barbara Czarniawska, Janet M. Dukerich, Jane E. Dutton, Kimberly D. Elsbach, Wendi Gardner, Linda E. Ginzela, Dennis A. Gioia, E. Goffman, Karen Golden-Biddle, Mary Jo Hatch, Roderick M. Kramer, Fred Rael, G.H. Mead, Michael G. Pratt, Anat Rafaeli, Hayagreeva Rao, Majken Schultz, Howard S. Schwartz, Robert I. Sutton, Henri Taijfel, John Turner, David A. Wherren, and Hugh Willmott. Intended to provide easy access to this material for students of organizational identity, it will also be of interest more broadly to students of business, sociology and psychology.
This qualitative study captures the experiences of four straight allies’ and one gay youth involvement in gay–straight alliances (GSAs) at their Ontario, Canada, high schools. Participants’ motivations for becoming GSA members and their roles as allies are examined. Queer theoretical perspectives, as espoused by Britzman (1995, 1998) and Linville (2009), underpin the study's purpose, design, and data analysis. Queer theory was employed to both problematize the heteronormative underpinnings of education and to critique the stand-alone nature of GSAs. Safety, support, education, and advocacy—to varying degrees—were identified as the roles of participants’ GSAs. Straight allies joined GSAs because they wanted to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people and advocate for their human rights. They developed queer-positive attitudes through befriending and/or empathizing with LGBTQ people and from their experiences with being “Othered.” Findings suggest that allies felt undue pressure to address homophobic language and were compelled to combat LGBTQ-based inequities in school and society. Particular attention was also paid to exploring how two straight male allies were cultivating new forms of masculinity that refrain from denigrating LGBTQ people.
A field study examined stereotyping and self-stereotyping in a natural intergroup context including a stigmatized minority (gay men) and a dominant majority (straight men). Sixty-two members of each group answered a questionnaire which was concerned mainly with differentiation within (heterogeneity) and differentiation between ingroup and outgroup on attributes varying in typicality (straight vs. gay) and valence (positive vs. negative). On the whole, the results confirmed our assumption that straight and gay men participate in the same network of stereotypes and consequently share the prevailing representations of straight and gay men. In line with social identity theory, it was also found that membership in the stigmatized minority was highly identifying but not satisfying, and that its members (gay men) attempted to secure a positive social identity through social competition and social creativity. Finally, the relationship between (self-) stereotyping and social reality is discussed briefly.
We examined the role of sexual orientation and method of disease transmission (controllable or uncontrollable) in reactions to an HIV-positive male applying for prescription drug coverage. In Study 1, we examined participants' beliefs regarding whether sexual orientation is a choice as a moderator of sexual orientation and method of disease transmission effects. When infection was uncontrollable, participants who believe orientation is a choice responded more negatively to gay than heterosexual applicants. A second study replicated Study 1 and found that beliefs regarding orientation as a choice only influenced reactions among participants low in motivation to control prejudice.
Dynamic stereotypes characterize social groups that are thought to have changed from the attributes they manifested in the past and even to continue to change in the future. According to social role theory’s assumption that the role behavior of group members shapes their stereotype, groups should have dynamic stereotypes to the extent that their typical social roles are perceived to change over time. Applied to men and women, this theory makes two predictions about perceived change: (a) perceivers should think that sex differences are eroding because of increasing similarity of the roles of men and women and (b) the female stereotype should be particularly dynamic because of greater change in the roles of women than of men. This theory was tested and confirmed in five experiments that examined perceptions of the roles and the personality, cognitive, and physical attributes of men and women of the past, present, and future.
Individuals who are supportive of social justice efforts are not always effective in their anti-oppression efforts. Some who genuinely aspire to act as social justice allies are harmful, ultimately, despite their best intentions, perpetu- ating the system of oppression they seek to change. Different underlying motivations of those who aspire to be allies can lead to differences in effectiveness, consistency, outcome, and sustainability. The conceptual model pre- sented here, using underlying motivation to frame the dif- ferent issues and challenges facing those who are aspiring allies, is offered as a tool for student affairs professionals' self-reflection and developing students as allies for social justice. The conceptual model presented here is intended to help inform aspiring allies and student affairs professionals seeking to develop social justice allies how individuals who already support diversity and social justice view what it means to be an ally. Conceptualizing these various identities can help student affairs professionals understand why some allies are effective, consistent, and sustainable where others are not and build on these good intentions to develop more effective allies. After first discussing the role of social justice allies in higher education and student affairs, the author explores the emerging schol-
In an investigation of stigma by association, 179 nondisabled students gave free-response and adjective checklist responses in one of four experimental conditions: stimulus person as dating partner of a disabled male, of a disabled female, of a nondisabled male, or of a nondisabled female college student. Adjective checklist results indicated that, as compared with the partners of nondisabled individuals, the partners of disabled individuals were perceived as significantly more trustworthy and nurturant. Content analysis of the free-response item showed that the partners of disabled individuals were more likely to be described as having nurturant qualities than the partners of nondisabled individuals and were less likely to be described as intelligent, sociable, or athletic. Discussion focuses on the significance of these results for understanding disability stigma by association and on the implications of these findings for interaction between individuals with and without disabilities.
The stigmatization process might differ as a function of whether "marked" individuals are viewed within a context of other marked individuals or in the context of positively viewed "normals. "Several alternative impression outcomes seem plausible the destigmatization by association of marked individuals, the stigmatization by association of normal individuals, a contrast effect, or no influence of context. Two experiments produced evidence only for stigma-by-association effects-heterosexual male targets were denigrated when viewed with their homosexual friends. Moreover, this effect survived attempts both to make the heterosexual target similar to the subjects and to present him as an individual of high achieved status. More generally, these data highlight the risk of researching social cognitive phenomena within circumscribed social contexts: Crucial naturally occurring processes are too easily overlooked.
Allies represent a crucial faction in the work for social justice; as members of the dominant population who advocate for the oppressed, they are important collaborators in this struggle. This qualitative inquiry investigated the ally development of 13 college students at a religiously affiliated institution in a Midwestern urban area. The interviews yielded several common factors, including personality qualities, family influence, faith, and realizations of Otherness. Implications for fostering the development of allies are discussed along with suggestions for future research.
Based on the Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1979) a model for understanding the development of attitudes toward LGB relationships among White heterosexual undergraduate students was proposed. Using 401 White heterosexual students (70% women) attending a large public mid-Atlantic university this model was tested. More specifically, the effects of gender, pre-college variables (attitudes and interpersonal contact), and college contact with LGB individuals on attitudes toward LGB relationships after two years of college were tested using a series of regression analyses. The proposed model was supported by statistical analyses. Suggestions for facilitating the development of more positive attitudes among students are made.
Forty-six heterosexual members of a college-based gay/straight alliance organization were surveyed to investigate characteristics of students who commit to acting as allies in reducing sexual prejudice. Assessment focused on the students’ history of intergroup contact and exposure to sexual prejudice prior to joining the gay/straight alliance, endorsement of positive stereotypes and immutability beliefs, perception of the ally role in terms of the potential for stigma by association, and level of intergroup communication apprehension. This study yielded a descriptive profile of heterosexual allies. Discussion addresses implications for recruiting and training members of college gay/straight alliances.
A critical ethnographic evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual/transvestite) Safe Zone project. The study was conducted at Iowa State University. The purpose of the Safe Zone project was to change the culture of the campus by creating a more welcoming and supportive environment for LGBT individuals. Results of the study suggest that the project has had a positive impact on the visibility of LGBT people and issues on campus, and has increased support for LGBT people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite their prominence in civil rights movements, out-group allies have been understudied. The current research examined out-group alliance, focusing on predictors of heterosexuals' advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. Heterosexuals who were recruited through an online panel of research participants completed a survey containing measures of empathy, out-group contact, gender, education, and attitudes toward gays and lesbians. Additionally, participants indicated whether they had engaged in several allied behaviors (e.g., donating money for LGBT causes). Women, educated individuals, and those with gay and lesbian friends were more likely to be allies. Additionally, alliance was greatest among individuals lower in prejudice and simultaneously higher in positivity toward gays and lesbians. Implications regarding intergroup relations and future research are discussed.
This study explored the experiences of family members of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals (N= 198) following the 2006 November election in the United States. Family members in states that passed a constitutional amendment to restrict marriage recognition (PASS) reported greater exposure to negative media messages about LGB individuals and greater negative affect related to the amendments than family members living in non-PASS states. Family members in PASS states reported similar exposure to negative media and affect but less stress than LGB PASS individuals (N= 361). Analysis of responses to an open-ended question about feelings about marriage amendments revealed 6 themes, including concern for the safety and well-being of LGB family members and negative impact on family. Overall, findings suggest that family members may experience increased concern for LGB family members during policy initiatives aimed at LGB individuals. Social justice implications for family members are discussed.
Heterosexual-identified Americans who believe that sexual orientation is immutable typically express more tolerant attitudes towards lesbians and gay men. Attribution theorists argue that this is because immutability beliefs reduce stigmatization. In two studies, 97 American and 72 British heterosexual-identified students reported their beliefs about the immutability and fundamentality of sexual orientation, their attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and their judgments about the values that those beliefs expressed. In both samples, tolerant attitudes and immutability beliefs were correlated only among participants who consistently judged that immutability beliefs would be expressed by more tolerant heterosexual persons. More condemning participants judged lesbian and gay people and heterosexual people to be more fundamentally different in both samples. I argue that links between immutability and tolerance depend more on social constructions of immutability beliefs as expressions of tolerance and less on the attributional content of such beliefs than previous theorists have acknowledged. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two studies examined the relationships of gender-role variables to attitudes toward homosexuality. Study 1, a meta-analysis, found that endorsement of traditional gender-role beliefs, modern sexism, and hypermasculinity were related to attitudes, but that gender-role self-concept was not. Study 2 examined the relationships of endorsement of male role norms, attitudes toward women, hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, modern sexism, hypermasculinity, and hyperfemininity to attitudes toward homosexuality and self-reported antigay behaviors in a college student sample. The best predictors of attitudes were participant gender, endorsement of male role norms, attitudes toward women, benevolent sexism, and modern sexism. The best predictors of antigay behavior were participant gender and hyper-gender-role orientation; attitudes toward women and modern sexism were also predictors for men but not for women.
Little research has focused on the development of positive attitudes toward the LGB community amongst heterosexuals in the
USA, despite evidence demonstrating increasing levels of acceptance for sexual orientation minorities. A convenience sample
of 50 female and 18 male heterosexual Midwestern university students with positive attitudes toward LGB people participated
in semi-structured interviews that addressed research questions about the formation of their attitudes. Results found three
key features in attitude formation: (1) early normalizing experiences in childhood, (2) meeting LGB peers in high school or
college as important to the development of their attitudes, and (3) experiences of empathy based on an LGB peer’s struggles
and successes, or resistance to hatred expressed by those with negative attitudes.
This chapter provides an introduction to and overview of stigma.
(from the chapter) Topics include: what is stigma?; types and dimensions of stigma; functions of stigmatizing others; a conceptual framework (the perceiver–target dimension, the personal–group based identity dimension, the affective–cognitive–behavioral dimension, advantages of the 3-dimensional framework, limitations of the framework). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (chapter)
In light of increasing cross-communication and possible coalescence of conceptual models of stigma and prejudice, we reviewed 18 key models in order to explore commonalities and possible distinctions between prejudice and stigma. We arrive at two conclusions. First, the two sets of models have much in common (representing "one animal"); most differences are a matter of focus and emphasis. Second, one important distinction is in the type of human characteristics that are the primary focus of models of prejudice (race) and stigma (deviant behavior and identities, and disease and disabilities). This led us to develop a typology of three functions of stigma and prejudice: exploitation and domination (keeping people down); norm enforcement (keeping people in); and disease avoidance (keeping people away). We argue that attention to these functions will enhance our understanding of stigma and prejudice and our ability to reduce them.
Using a convenience sample of 157 undergraduates, this study explored the likeability ratings of target characters from selected film clips who were described as gay or heterosexual as they associated with a gay-described foil character (i.e., a character against which the target is compared). As predicted, male respondents who strongly endorsed anti-gay prejudice viewed gay-described targets more favorably than heterosexual-described targets when each target was paired with a gay foil. Further, this pattern of biased ratings by high-prejudice male participants against our heterosexual target differentiated these participants from both low-prejudice male and high-prejudice female respondents. In contrast, but as hypothesized, high-prejudice female respondents compared to high-prejudice males rated heterosexual-described targets more favorably than they rated gay-described targets.
Using data from a 1999 national RDD survey ( N = 1,335), this article examines gender gaps in heterosexuals' attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, and a variety of topics related to homosexuality. Attitudes toward lesbians differed from attitudes toward gay men in several areas, and significant differences were observed between male and female heterosexual respondents. Survey participants generally were more likely to regard gay men as mentally ill, supported adoption rights for lesbians more than for gay men, and had more negative personal reactions to gay men than to lesbians. Overall, heterosexual women were more supportive than men of employment protection and adoption rights for gay people, more willing to extend employee benefits to same-sex couples, and less likely to hold stereotypical beliefs about gay people. Heterosexual men's negative reactions to gay men were at the root of these gender differences. Of all respondent-by-target combinations, heterosexual men were the least supportive of recognition of same-sex relationships and adoption rights for gay men, most likely to believe that gay men are mentally ill and molest children, and most negative in their affective reactions to gay men. Heterosexual men's response patterns were affected by item order, suggesting possible gender differences in the cognitive organization of attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. The findings demonstrate the importance of differentiating lesbians from gay men as attitude targets in survey research.