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When Intergroup Contact is Uncommon and Bias is Strong: The Case of Anti-Transgender Bias
Abstract
In contrast to the centrality of “coming out” in the gay rights movement, transgender people may be less likely to disclose their transgender status due to the severity of anti-transgender stigma, structural factors, and differences in how transgender status and sexual identity are expressed. As a consequence, intergroup contact with transgender people may be less common than gay contact, which may limit its effectiveness. In Study 1 (N = 174), transgender contact was much less frequent than gay contact, and transgender contact frequency was not associated with anti-transgender bias, although more positive transgender contact was associated with lower anti-transgender bias, and gay contact frequency was also independently associated with lower anti-transgender bias. In Study 2 (N = 277), greater transgender “media contact” was associated with increased empathy for transgender people and decreased anti-transgender bias. In addition, several participants left unsolicited anti-transgender comments at the end of the study, and these participants tended to have less transgender contact and were higher in Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation. Our results suggest that increasing contact with the LGBT community and increasing media representations of transgender people may decrease anti-transgender bias. Future directions building on these results are discussed.
... In the context of gender/ sex minority prejudice reduction, correlational studies indicate that contact with transgender individuals is negatively linked to antitrans prejudice. These studies have found that cisgender people with some degree of contact with transgender people have less prejudiced attitudes than those with no contact (Barbir et al., 2017;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Kanamori et al., 2022;King et al., 2009;Michelson & Harrison, 2023;Tadlock et al., 2017;Wang-Jones et al., 2017;Willoughby et al., 2010). ...
... Three separate items assessed whether participants have a family member, friend, or acquaintance who is transgender and/or nonbinary. Contact with gender/sex minority individuals is associated with lower prejudice (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Michelson & Harrison, 2023;Tadlock et al., 2017). In analyses, we grouped participants by those with any intergroup contact (i.e., responded "yes" to at least one of the three items; n = 252) and those with no intergroup contact (n = 321). ...
... We found that participants' past intergroup contact had a large main effect on both feelings toward gender/sex minorities and gender/sex diversity affirming beliefs. This finding accords with other studies that have found intergroup contact is a strong predictor of implicit and explicit attitudes toward gender/sex minorities (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Michelson & Harrison, 2023;Tadlock et al., 2017;Wang-Jones et al., 2017). The present research adds that intergroup contact with gender/sex minorities is linked to people's beliefs about gender/sex diversity more broadly (i.e., social constructionist and essentialist beliefs about the nature of gender/sex). ...
A promising method of reducing cisgender people’s antitrans prejudice is encouraging critical self-reflection on how one’s own gender and/or sex (gender/sex) is situated within gender/sex diversity more broadly. We developed an intervention using sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015) to improve cisgender people’s attitudes about gender/sex minorities and promote gender/sex diversity affirming beliefs by having them map their own gender/sex identities on its three-dimensional diagrams. Participants (N = 573) in an online study were randomly assigned to watch a 12-min instructional video on how to use SCT diagrams to map their own gender/sexes and then to do so (diagrams condition) or participate in one of two control conditions (video only and neutral), followed by measures of feelings toward gender/sex minorities and gender/sex diversity beliefs. Participants in the diagrams condition had significantly more positive feelings toward gender/sex minorities than those in the video-only control condition and significantly higher gender/sex diversity affirming beliefs than those in the neutral control condition. Participants’ feelings toward gender/sex minorities and gender/sex diversity beliefs were reassessed 4 weeks later to analyze whether effects endured over time, but none did. Future research should examine conditions under which antitrans prejudice reduction achieved with self-reflection via SCT can be durable over time.
... Miller et al. (2017) explored the conditional effects of authoritarianism and disgust on transgender-related policy attitudes, finding that authoritarianism and disgust both have a significant effect on such attitudes. Further, individuals higher in right-wing authoritarianism left anti-transgender statements at the end of a study about transgender people without any prompting from the investigators (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). However, Lewis et al. (2022) did not find any significant associations between authoritarianism and various policy opinions about transgender rights in either 2015 or 2020 net alternative covariates. ...
... In the domain of LGBTQI+ politics and policy, the literature has been more limited and mixed regarding the effects of SDO on attitudes. Some studies find a negative relationship between SDO and attitudes towards homosexuality (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Whitley Jr., 1999) and transgender people (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Crawford and Pilanski (2014) found that SDO more strongly predicted attitudes when policies reflect group efforts to attenuate hierarchies in the form gay rights than other predictors including authoritarianism . ...
... However, the population sizes of LGBTQI+ people are small overall, making contact less likely, so the effects of contact with transgender people may be limited in the real world (see Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Lewis et al., 2017). Attitude generalization theory suggests that attitudes about one group spill over into the attitudes of other groups, particularly via contact (see Flores, 2015). ...
Social science interest in LGBTQI+ politics and policy has grown in the 21st century. Likewise, the political opportunity structure for LGBTQI+ activists has changed significantly, with historical expansions of legal protections only to be followed by the current period of backlash and retrenchment. In this article, we outline existing and potential research in LGBTQI+ politics and policy employing theoretical perspectives from political psychology. Promising advances in the study of LGBTQI+ politics and policy draw on framework and theories grounded in social and political psychology. Nevertheless, we also identify several significant gaps in the literature including the lack of focus on intersectional perspectives, subpopulations such as intersex people and those born with differences in sexual development, and the psychology of LGBTQI+ people and its relevance for their political attitudes and behavior.
... Prior research using samples of adults in the USA reveals that negative attitudes toward transgender adults and/or their rights are more pronounced among men than women (e.g., Flores et al., 2018;Jones et al., 2018;Miller et al., 2017;Norton & Herek, 2013); fewer studies show a significant age effect, with younger cohorts more accepting of transgender rights (Flores, 2015;Luhur et al., 2019;Miller et al., 2017). The "intergroup contact hypothesis," i.e., whether knowing someone who is transgender is associated with being more accepting, has received support in some studies (Brown, 2017;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Luhur et al., 2019), but not in others (Flores, 2015;Jones et al., 2018). ...
... If recent studies on attitudes in the USA toward different aspects of transgenderism provide good direction for which factors might be relevant, which the preceding analysis suggests they do, then our study is limited in that our dataset does not include certain variables. Those include interpersonal contact with someone who is transgender (Brown, 2017;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Luhur et al., 2019) or gay/lesbian (Flores, 2015), quantity of media consumption (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Jones et al., 2018;Pang et al., 2020), certain personality traits such as authoritarianism (Miller et al., 2017;Norton & Herek, 2013) or need for cognitive closure (Jones et al., 2018), as well as beliefs concerning the causes of transgender identity (Elischberger et al., 2016). ...
... If recent studies on attitudes in the USA toward different aspects of transgenderism provide good direction for which factors might be relevant, which the preceding analysis suggests they do, then our study is limited in that our dataset does not include certain variables. Those include interpersonal contact with someone who is transgender (Brown, 2017;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Luhur et al., 2019) or gay/lesbian (Flores, 2015), quantity of media consumption (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Jones et al., 2018;Pang et al., 2020), certain personality traits such as authoritarianism (Miller et al., 2017;Norton & Herek, 2013) or need for cognitive closure (Jones et al., 2018), as well as beliefs concerning the causes of transgender identity (Elischberger et al., 2016). ...
In order to align with their inner sense of gender identity, adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria are increasingly being treated with cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgeries to alter their bodies. The present study is the first to examine attitudes about these recently emergent medical practices in a national population. We used data from the 2018 Post-Midterm Election Study, a survey representative of adults in the USA ages 20 to 65 years (N = 5285), to examine the social factors associated with approval or disapproval of hormonal and/or surgical interventions for adolescents seeking medical treatment for gender dysphoria. Higher fertility, race/ethnicity (in this case, black), sex (male), and heterosexual self-identity were each robustly associated with disapproval. Nested regression models revealed that a range of religion measures were statistically significant (toward disapproval). However, all but evangelical self-identification were no longer significant after accounting for support for abortion rights, the spectrum of political self-identification, and voting behavior. These findings, prompted by a high percentage of variance explained, led us to consider perspectives on medical transitions for adolescents as fitting the “culture war” framework, largely polarized between a “progressive” worldview of bodily autonomy and an “orthodox” worldview of bodily integrity.
... El autoritarismo es un fuerte predictor de actitudes negativas hacia grupos que se perciben como amenaza a valores morales y creencias tradicionales (Crawford et al., 2015;Funke, 2005). Por su parte, la Dominancia social es el deseo del endogrupo por dominar y reafirmar su superioridad sobre determinados exogrupos (Ho et al., 2015, Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018Whitley, 1999). Individuos que puntúan alto en dominancia social sostienen actitudes negativas hacia grupos que demandan equidad social, incluyendo la diversidad sexual y de género. ...
... Individuos que puntúan alto en dominancia social sostienen actitudes negativas hacia grupos que demandan equidad social, incluyendo la diversidad sexual y de género. El autoritarismo parece ser un predictor más fuerte del prejuicio sexual que la dominancia social (Van der Toorn, Jost, Packer, Noorbalochi, & Van Bavel, 2017), pero la investigación ha encontrado que ambos constructos subyacen a la oposición al contacto con personas LGB (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). ...
... Estudios sobre el Contacto Imaginado muestran que esta intervención puede ser eficaz en la reducción del prejuicio sexual (Lacosse, 2014;Turner, Crisp, & Lambert, 2007;West & Greenland, 2016). Investigadores sugieren que el contacto imaginado es más efectivo cuando los participantes tienen poco o nulo contacto con personas LGB o cuando se encuentran en contextos de alto prejuicio sexual (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Lee & Cunningham, 2014;Lau et al., 2014;West, Hotchin, & Wood, 2017). Sobre esto último, Miles y Crisp (2014) sostienen que participantes responden favorablemente al contacto imaginado independientemente del contexto sociocultural en el que se encuentran. ...
Una estrategia para disminuir el prejuicio de un grupo social hacia otro es el uso de historias de ficción. Esta modalidad de contacto indirecto destaca como alternativa cuando el contacto directo no es viable, ya sea por falta de oportunidad para un encuentro o porque conlleva riesgos para las partes involucradas. El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar niveles de prejuicio sexual en participantes heterosexuales que vieron o leyeron una historia con personajes gay y quienes imaginaron un encuentro con una persona gay o una desconocida. A través de un diseño experimental, se puso a prueba la hipótesis de que el prejuicio sexual (prejuicio alto o prejuicio bajo) variaría en función de la historia (ficticia o imaginada) y del país de origen de los participantes (El Salvador o Reino Unido). En comparación con participantes del Reino Unido, participantes de El Salvador puntuaron significativamente más bajo en Dominancia social, más alto en Autoritarismo e Identificación heterosexual, y reportaron menor acuerdo con las uniones legales de parejas del mismo sexo. No se encontró asociación entre estos factores y puntajes de prejuicio sexual. Se discuten posibles explicaciones a estos resultados y direcciones futuras para el uso de narrativas en la reducción del prejuicio hacia minorías sexuales.
... Studies mostly conducted in the USA show that more interpersonal contact with sexual minority individuals (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual people) correlates with less prejudicial attitudes (e.g., see Smith et al., 2009). However, contact with TGD people is reportedly less common than with sexual minorities, which can limit contact to solely via media representation (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018) that may lack positive and/or accurate depictions of TGD identities (e.g., McLaren et al., 2021). Overall, reduced exposure to and contact with TGD people may result in discrimination and transphobic bias (King et al., 2009). ...
... This not only echoes the high correlation (r = .85) that was found between acceptance of the gender spectrum and contact and comfort (Fresán et al., 2022) but also tentatively seems to be aligned with the literature on the relationship between contact with trans people and trans acceptance (e.g., Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Differences between the factor structure of the Portuguese version and the Spanish one might result from differences in the statistical procedures followed: by using confirmatory factor analysis, Fresán et al. (2022) have defined a priori a three-factor structure, without exploring how the data would freely be grouped. ...
Introduction
Attitudes towards transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals are associated with discrimination against TGD people and underly TGD minority stress. Despite Portugal’s progressive legal framework, anti-trans interactions and discourse are reported. Nonetheless, studies on trans attitudes are still incipient in Portugal. The Transgender Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs (T-KAB) scale is a psychometrically sound measure of transgender attitudes. However, its convergent validity with transphobia is yet to be tested, and its ability to study sociopolitical factors driving pro-trans attitudes is unexplored.
Methods
We explored the psychometric properties of the European Portuguese version of T-KAB in an online collected (February 2022 to May 2022) sample of Portuguese adults (N = 447), and tested differences (ANOVA; t-test) in T-KAB according to sociopolitical factors.
Results
Results from the Principal Axis Factoring and Parallel Analysis showed a two-factor measure of acceptance, comfort, and social tolerance towards trans people. Both factors presented an excellent internal consistency (α = .94 and α = .95) and were significantly associated with the Genderism and Transphobia Scale.
Conclusions
Results found that participants with a heterosexual orientation, less contact with TGD people, less educated, religious, and who endorsed a right-wing or conservative political ideology showed lower T-KAB scores. These results corroborate the psychometric validity of the T-KAB, as well as its ability to identify sociopolitical segments of the population according to their attitudes towards TGD people.
Policy Implications
This study informs future research on tailored interventions to increase transgender acceptance, comfort, and social tolerance in the general population.
... The literature offers inconsistent conclusions about the effectiveness of contact with transgender people in reducing bias. A critical shortcoming is the limited measurement of intergroup contact with transgender people [40]. Previous studies have used a dichotomous measure of contact, disregarding the importance of both quantity and quality of contact [40]. ...
... A critical shortcoming is the limited measurement of intergroup contact with transgender people [40]. Previous studies have used a dichotomous measure of contact, disregarding the importance of both quantity and quality of contact [40]. Our study asked solely about participants' perceptions of the presence or absence of transgender/transsexual individuals. ...
Introduction
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS) is a validated self-assessment tool for health and mental health professionals who provide healthcare for sexual and gender minority patients. This study aimed to develop and validate a Japanese version of LGBT-DOCSS (LGBT-DOCSS-JP) and examine its psychometric properties.
Methods
LGBT-DOCSS was translated into Japanese and cross-culturally validated using cognitive debriefing. We then evaluated the structural validity, convergent and discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability of LGBT-DOCSS-JP using an online survey.
Results
Data were analyzed for 381 health and mental health professionals aged 20 years or older from three suburban medical institutions. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original three-factor model did not fit well with LGBT-DOCSS-JP. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four new factors: Attitudinal Awareness, Basic Knowledge, Clinical Preparedness, and Clinical Training. Convergent and discriminant validity were supported using four established scales that measured attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, genderism and transphobia, authoritarianism and conventionalism, and social desirability. The internal consistency of LGBT-DOCSS-JP was supported by the Cronbach’s alpha values for the overall scale (0.84), and for each of its subscales (Attitudinal Awareness and Basic Knowledge both 0.87, Clinical Preparedness 0.78, and Clinical Training 0.97). The test–retest reliability for the overall LGBT-DOCSS-JP was supported by an intraclass correlation coefficient score of 0.86.
Conclusions
LGBT-DOCSS-JP has the potential to serve as a valuable tool in the development and assessment of effective curricula for LGBT healthcare education, as well as a means to promote self-reflection among trainees and professionals.
... Moreover, the close connection between democratization and feminism may elicit unique forms of compassion to all minorities; democratization is, partly, ensuring that all stakeholders in society have liberty and a voice (Brysk, 2020). Educators in Taiwan should capitalize on such compassionate sentiments, as contact with transgender people might enhance compassion and thus friendship (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Hence, the compassion exhibited by Taiwanese students toward transgender people may be an exemplary facet to begin gender equity education with. ...
... Educators should connect these two items and show that concepts of compassion and justice should extend to daily friendship and acquaintanceship with transgender people. Providing opportunities for cisgender heterosexual students to understand transgender students, as well as supporting and encouraging them to join activities with transgender students, should be included in the university's social and instructional infrastructure to establish a gender-friendly campus (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Finding methods for removing transgender stigma and marginalization is critical. ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate cisgender heterosexual university students’ social interpersonal relationship attitudes toward transgender peers, in comparison to attitudes toward cisgender peers, within the Taiwan context. Statistical analysis compared attitudinal differences based on students’ gender and the gender identity of the example. Out of a return of 1071 surveys, 828 students (376 male and 452 female) indicated they were cisgender heterosexual; their responses were used for this study. The Social Interpersonal Relationship Scale, comprised of the dimensions: friendship acceptance, love recognition, and sympathy of justice, was used to measure participants’ attitudes toward cisgender, transgender men, and transgender women peers. The results demonstrated that cisgender heterosexual university students’ attitudes toward peers were dependent on both students’ gender and the gender identity of the target. Female students reported more positive attitudes toward transgender peers than male students. Male students reported the highest acceptance score for cisgender peers and the lowest acceptance score for transgender women peers across all three dimensions. Female students’ attitudes toward cisgender and transgender peers varied in each dimension of social interpersonal relationship. The implications of these findings for future studies and educational practices are discussed.
... Some, albeit sparse, previous research suggests the potential importance of secondary transfer effect. Individuals who knew at least one LGB person reported less opposition to increasing the civil rights of transgender individuals (Tee & Hegarty, 2006), and LG contact was associated with more positive attitudes toward transgender individuals (Norton & Herek, 2013;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018) found that self-reported contact with transgender individuals (i.e., direct contact) was inconsistently related to transgender prejudice. However, self-reported contact with lesbians and gay men (i.e., an aggregate index not separated by group) was associated with less prejudice toward transgender individuals. ...
... However, self-reported contact with lesbians and gay men (i.e., an aggregate index not separated by group) was associated with less prejudice toward transgender individuals. These findings may be due to most cisgender (i.e., those that identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) individuals' limited exposure to transgender individuals (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). In contrast, gay men and lesbians make up a larger proportion of the population and thus may have more opportunities for contact. ...
Intergroup contact is often an effective means of prejudice reduction. However, transgender individuals, a highly stigmatized group, make up a small proportion (0.58%; Flores et al., 2016) of the U.S. population, which significantly limits the feasibility of direct contact for most people. Thus, secondary transfer effects, wherein the benefits of contact with one group generalizes to other related groups, may be an important means of transgender prejudice reduction. Across two studies (Ns = 242 and 172), we assessed the extent to which contact with sexual minority (i.e., lesbian, gay, or bisexual) individuals was associated with secondary transfer effects on transgender prejudice. We also examined the extent to which secondary transfer effects varied by relationship type (i.e., friend, family, acquaintance). Participants completed online surveys that assessed prejudice and contact experience with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Overall, contact with lesbians and gay men was associated with less prejudice toward transgender individuals indirectly through lower prejudice toward each respective group, and friendships were the most consistent relationship type associated with secondary transfer effects. Contact with bisexuals, as well as family members, was inconsistently associated with transgender prejudice. The findings suggest secondary transfer effects as a potential means of transgender prejudice reduction and emphasize the need to assess relationship type and contact group, as patterns of prejudice reduction were not uniform across groups often perceived to be similar.
... A few studies have suggested a mediating role of RWA in the interplay of variables that predict prejudiced attitudes towards outgroups and behaviours that defy traditional ideologies about family and sexuality (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). In Patev et al. (2019), RWA mediated the relationship between sexual disgust and stigmatising attitudes about abortion. ...
... For instance, Hoffarth and Hodson (2018) showed that increasing contact with LGBT people (e.g. increasing media representations of transgender people) may decrease anti-transgender bias. ...
The present study examined the associations between three forms of disgust sensitivity (i.e. moral, pathogen, and sexual) and homonegativity towards gay men and lesbian women, based on the behavioural immune system (BIS) theory. Two forms of homonegativity were assessed: old-fashioned (i.e. moral and religious objections to homosexuality) and modern (i.e. objections to homosexuality that are grounded in beliefs such as sexual minorities demand and receive ‘preferential’ treatment). Frequency and valence of contact with sexual minorities also was measured. An online survey was completed by 263 self-identified heterosexual participants, a majority of whom were White (n = 173) and cisgender women (n = 192). Sexual disgust was the strongest predictor of old-fashioned homonegativity towards lesbian women, and pathogen disgust was the only predictor of old-fashioned homonegativity against gay men. No measures of disgust were statistically significant predictors of modern homonegativity. Both frequency and quality of intergroup contact played a significant role in moderating different effects of sexual disgust on homonegativity. The limitations of this study and directions for future research are outlined.
... A few studies have suggested a mediating role of RWA in the interplay of variables that predict prejudiced attitudes towards outgroups and behaviours that defy traditional ideologies about family and sexuality (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). In Patev et al. (2019), RWA mediated the relationship between sexual disgust and stigmatising attitudes about abortion. ...
... For instance, Hoffarth and Hodson (2018) showed that increasing contact with LGBT people (e.g. increasing media representations of transgender people) may decrease anti-transgender bias. ...
Disgust specific to sexual stimuli has been thought to be an adaptation that serves purposes of pathogen-avoidance, partner selection and social dominance. While the link between disgust responses and homonegative and transnegative attitudes has been relatively established, it is not yet clear why. Literature using evolutionary psychology perspectives of these phenomena is scarce in areas with substantial LGBT-related violence like Colombia. This research aimed to study the interplay of predispositional (e.g. sociodemographic, reported contact), affective (e.g. disgust sensitivity) and cognitive (e.g. Right-Wing Authoritarian) variables in homonegative and transnegative attitudes of Colombian adults. Participants (N = 272) had a mean age of 26.38 (SD = 9.47), women comprised 72% of the sample and men 28%. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that increased sexual specific disgust sensitivity and greater RWA predicted stronger homonegativity and transnegativity. The relationship between sexual disgust and prejudice was partially mediated by RWA. Findings suggest that sexual disgust sensitivity adaptations in homonegativity and transnegativity may respond to selection pressures that differ from pathogen-avoidance perspectives, and that are associated with maintaining social hierarchy and social dominance. Anti-prejudice initiatives would benefit from targeting emotional responses of sexual disgust, especially within communities and institutions that have historically endorsed conservative and traditional values.
... cisgender) individual, or having more (vs. less) positive contact with transgender individuals has been shown to foster positive attitudes, increase empathy, and improve behavioral intentions (e.g., endorsing more public support) toward transgender individuals (Barbir et al., 2017;Boccanfuso et al., 2021;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Research examining the benefits of personal contact to decrease gender nonconformity stigma is still scarce. ...
Research has shown that individuals from sexual and gender minorities are more likely to be stigmatized. Taking the perceiver’s perspective, we conducted two experimental studies to examine gender nonconformity stigma and the conditions under which such stigma is more (or less) likely to emerge. In both studies, participants were asked to read descriptions of targets varying in gender (non)conformity and assigned sex (Study 1; N = 337) or sexual identity (Study 2; N = 406). Results from both studies showed that participants preferred more social distance from gender nonconforming (vs. conforming) targets, tended to dehumanize them (i.e., attributed them more primary and less secondary emotions), and reported less anti-violence behavioral intentions and justifications. In both studies, results further showed that having more frequent and positive personal contact with gender nonconforming individuals helps buffer against gender nonconformity bias. Unexpectedly, results from Study 2 showed that humanizing gender nonconforming targets (rather than dehumanizing them) was associated with more violence predispositions for participants who reported having more negative personal contact with gender nonconforming individuals. No differences were found according to the targets’ assigned sex or sexual identity. Taken together, our findings highlight the need to understand the causes and boundaries of gender nonconformity bias.
... Thus, there remains substantial "knowledge gaps" in people's understanding of what it means to be transgender, the causes and prevalence of transgender identities, the unique challenges and stigmas transgender people face, as well as the availability and efficacy of different treatments for transgender populations (Buck, 2016;Howansky et al., 2022;Locantore & Wasarhaley, 2020). Transgender knowledge may come from intergroup contact (Broockman & Kalla, 2016), consumption of narrative and news media that provide accurate information (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;McDermott et al., 2018), as well as knowledge interventions delivered in academic or professional settings (Bristol et al., 2018). Because each of these knowledge-rich experiences may be more common for liberals than conservatives, we propose that liberals have superior knowledge of transgender issues than conservatives. ...
There are sharp U.S. political differences in transgender attitudes, with liberals expressing much more favorable attitudes and support for trans-inclusive policies than conservatives. Transgender attitudes likely contribute to numerous public policies that are being passed or considered, including policies that impact transgender health, safety, and well-being. Thus, it is imperative to understand why vast partisan differences in transgender attitudes occur. Here we present two preregistered studies examining whether transgender knowledge (i.e., knowledge about transgender identities, experiences, causes, and health care) differs in Democrats versus Republicans, and whether knowledge mediates political differences in attitudes and policy support (N = 439, Prolific). Participants completed a transgender quiz, followed by measures of transgender prejudice and support for trans-inclusive policies. Democrats had superior transgender knowledge compared to Republicans (ds > 1.39). Further, as predicted, transgender knowledge significantly mediated political differences in transgender prejudice and policy support. Exploratory analyses found that the predicted mediation effects held when knowledge was operationalized in different ways and after adjusting for demographic covariates. These data suggest that knowledge gaps help to explain political differences in transgender attitudes and may stimulate additional work on how to improve such knowledge.
... This suggests that for those who hold more conservative views about transgender people, any engagement with the subject of transgender identity is likely to have an effect -whether that be through knowledge or contact. Whilst general members of the population might have less opportunity for direct contact with transgender individuals, they are likely to have indirect contact, for example, through social media, television, or even extended contact, i.e., simply knowing that a member of ones' ingroup has contact with a transgender person (Crisp & Turner, 2009;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Solomon & Kurtz-Costes, 2018;Zagefka, 2019). This is then likely to increase their knowledge about transgender people and/or experiences, which in turn is likely to result in lower levels of transprejudice. ...
Over the last few years there has been an increase in anti-trans rhetoric and violence towards transgender individuals, the consequences of which continue to adversely affect transgender people’s lives. Given these societal ramifications, it is crucial to explore how transprejudice (prejudice against transgender people) might be ameliorated. Research within social psychology has repeatedly shown intergroup contact to reduce various forms of outgroup prejudice, but little extant research has tested this association for prejudice related to transgender identity. We conducted three cross-sectional studies which tested the relation between contact (quantity and quality) with transgender people, trans-related knowledge (i.e., participants’ self-reported level of knowledge about experiences of transgender people), and transprejudice (cognitive and affective). Across the three studies, we found that contact quantity and contact quality significantly mediated the negative relationship between knowledge and transprejudice (although contact quality was a more consistent mediator). Those with more trans-related knowledge had more frequent and better-quality contact with trans people, and in turn showed less prejudice towards transgender people. We found less consistent support for an alternative mediation model with prior knowledge mediating the contact to transprejudice link. These findings demonstrate the importance of the role of both knowledge about and contact with transgender people as a means of transprejudice reduction, with wide-reaching implications for creating environments that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
... National Rifle Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Civil Liberties Union, and Department of Justice) using an attitude thermometer rating (range 0-100) with higher scores denoting warmer (i.e. positive) toward the group in question (Glasford and Johnston, 2018;Hoffarth and Hodson, 2018). ...
Hate-motivated behavior (HMB) comprises a problem for public health and criminal justice systems. The present study contributes to current science of HMB by examining (1) potential typology replication and extension and (2) demographic and attitudinal correlates of HMB subtypes. The present study was a secondary analysis of an online survey study of discriminatory behavior and well-being. Participants were adults living in the United States ( N = 289). Four HMB subtypes emerged: generalized, unmotivated, reactive, and defensive. The generalized subtype was characterized by elevated levels of prejudices, positive views toward hate groups, and the youngest age. The reactive subtype was differentiated from the defensive subtype by modestly higher HMB, racism, and positive views toward racially motivated hate groups. HMB subtypes were largely consistent with prior literature, and therefore can inform public health and criminal justice system responses to acts ranging from minor discrimination to interpersonal violence. Prevention and practice are discussed.
... The endorsement of conservative beliefs and belief systems is associated with support for heterosexism. For straight people, conservatism is associated with opposition to gay rights and negative attitudes toward sexual minorities (Crawford et al., 2016;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;van der Toorn et al., 2017). According to system justification theory, conservatism should be associated with greater acceptance of (and less opposition to) heterosexism even among sexual minorities. ...
We hypothesized that because politically conservative ideology legitimizes the status quo—including heteronormative institutions and arrangements—it should be negatively associated with in-group identification, opposition to homophobia, and support for LGBTQ+ rights among sexual minorities. These hypotheses, which were derived from system justification theory, were assessed in large US samples of sexual minority respondents. In Study 1 (N = 4,530) and Study 2 (N = 1,107), we observed that more conservative sexual minorities expressed weaker sexual identification, and, relatedly, less support for same-sex marriage and adoption and other rights and privileges, as well as less participation in collective action in favor of LGBTQ+ rights. In Study 3 (N = 446), heterosexist system justification was associated with decreased sexual identification and support for LGBTQ+ rights. In all studies, identity and ideology accounted for unique variance in support for vs. opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. Implications for the politics of sexual identity and collective action among disadvantaged groups are discussed.
... Unfortunately, inequality is apparent in research regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) individuals; namely, it is common to focus on gay white men, excluding narratives from other LGBT members (Rehman et al., 2020;Wright, 2016). Moreover, although some research has found decreases in negative perceptions toward LGBT members upon engaging in parasocial interactions with LGBT characters in media (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Riggle et al., 1996;Schiappa et al., 2006), most characters are white (GLAAD, 2021) and generally portray behaviors which accentuate negative stereotypes (Sink & Mastro, 2017). As such, negative, and unique, consequences may arise in social and academic spheres for people belonging to underrepresented LGBT categories (e.g., Hispanic lesbians, black transgender men) who do not align with prototypical gayness (Levy et al., 2017). ...
Individuals generally hold multiple, and sometimes stereotypically contrasted, group memberships which may change depending on uncontrollable contextual factors. For instance, if someone is a foreigner, there exist certain social stereotypes regarding their nationality which may influence others’ conceptualizations. However, how might an intersection of memberships, such as being both foreign and gay, affect natives’ perceptions of them when these stereotypes may not converge? Across four experiments, the stereotypes attributed to generalized and specific groups were examined to better understand intersectional prototypicalities. Results indicated certain cases in which immigrants may be “de-immigrantized”, or, perceived as less stereotypically immigrant. More specifically, Portuguese participants viewed gay immigrants as less prototypically immigrant, but did not view lesbian immigrants as less prototypically immigrant, bringing into question the complexity of double minority conceptualizations. Additionally, individuals from nationalities with a higher perceived percentage of gays or lesbians in their population (e.g., Brazil and France) were generally viewed as less prototypically immigrant than individuals from nationalities with a lower perceived percentage of gays or lesbians in their population (e.g., India and Japan). Conclusions provide support for intersectional theories and yield additional insights into the categorization of multiple minority groups on the basis of sexuality and nationality.
... Reynolds (2013, 271) finds that "even in small numbers, out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender MPs in national legislatures encourage the adoption of gayfriendly legislation." Díez and Dion (2018) adapt this theory to show that a change in attitude does not require direct contact with members of the out-group, only exposure to ideas about SSM and interactions with supportive fellow citizens, even if through digital forms (see also Hoffarth and Hodson, 2018). ...
Same-sex marriage has risen to the top of political agendas across Latin America, but it is still illegal in many countries. Public support about the issue varies greatly, and the roles of the courts, presidents, and legislatures have also differed. This article focuses on legislators because they are charged with representing the public and converting demands into policy. Although many legislatures have now voted on the issue, the literature has not intensively examined the policy makers’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage. This study applies a theoretical framework that extends theories considering context and social contact and uses a survey of the region’s legislators to study the correlates of support for same-sex marriage. Although the study also tests for individual-level variables (e.g., gender and ideology), the models focus on the contextual role of religiosity. The results show that having more secular colleagues encourages even pious legislators to support same-sex marriage.
... De este modo, los espacios universitarios son clave para promover ese contacto, ya sea a través de la difusión en sus aulas de material audiovisual como cine (Mazur y Emmers-Sommer, 2003) y programas especializados de televisión (Schiappa, Gregg, y Hewes, 2006;Sink y Mastro, 2017) o mediante las redes sociales (Wu, Mou, Wang y Atkin, 2018). Al ser positivo el trato directo o indirecto sobre las opiniones referentes a la diversidad sexual (Garretson, 2014) como a las personas trans (Flores y otros, 2018a;Flores, 2018b;Hoffarth y Hodson, 2018), los recintos culturales universitarios como las galerías y los museos tienen gran potencial para ofrecer ese primer contacto. ...
... Participants who had an interpersonal relationship with a transgender person and who had been part of a co-ed team were more likely to be supportive of transgender people's inclusion in sport, to hold favourable views of transgender individuals, and feel comfortable with transgender individuals. Previous research has also demonstrated the positive impact of having relationships with transgender people as this is associated with lower levels of transphobia, lower levels of discrimination intention, and more positive attitudes toward transgender people (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Having relationships or prior contact with transgender people is also associated with being supportive of the inclusion of transgender people in sport (Flores et al., 2020) and sports medicine physicians who reported previous contact with trans people were more likely to report comfort and competence treating trans student athletes (Eberman et al., 2022). ...
Legislators who support current anti-transgender, sport-focused legislation argue that they are protecting cisgender athletes who oppose transgender inclusion. In particular, laws are being proposed and passed that aim to prevent transgender women from participating on women’s sports teams. However, little is known about whether athletes themselves are concerned about inclusion of transgender athletes. To fill this gap in the literature, we recruited 270 current and former intercollegiate athletes in the United States between September 2020 and April 2021 to participate in a quantitative study. Participants completed questions about scenarios involving a trans man athlete and a trans woman athlete, general attitudes toward transgender people, sport-specific attitudes toward transgender people, and religiosity. Our primary research questions were: do athletes generally support inclusion of binary transgender people in sport and how is support associated with variables measured in the study? Analyses included descriptive statistics, correlations, and t-tests. Results indicated that levels of support for transgender people were associated with a variety of sport-related variables. Namely, women were significantly more supportive of transgender athlete inclusion compared to men, and individuals who had prior contact with transgender people outside of support were significantly more supportive of transgender people both within and outside of sport. Participants demonstrated inconsistencies in beliefs that may be associated with unfamiliarity or misunderstandings of transgender terminology and issues. Policy implications and implications for transgender athletes are discussed.
... Additionally, opportunities for increased empathy have been shown to help shift overall attitudes and beliefs about TGNB people. 34 In addition to informational training, departments and medical offices should find ways to engage with the TGNB community directly, such as through panels, referral partners, offering direct support through donations or free clinic time, speakers, or conferences. 35 Limitations Several limitations of this study should be noted. ...
Introduction:
Transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) adults face significant barriers to healthcare, including healthcare denials, limited access to clinicians, and mistreatment by healthcare clinicians. While prior studies have explored the consequences of overt discrimination in healthcare, they often overlook the possible impacts of more subtle forms of discrimination.
Aim:
Is there a relationship between specific healthcare experiences, including both overt and subtle forms of discrimination, and mental health/substance use among TGNB adults?
Methods:
This study was a secondary analysis of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), a cross-sectional survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) that included 27,715 TGNB adults from across the US and several US territories. This study analyzed variables including healthcare experiences, mental health, and substance use outcomes.
Results:
Doctors refusing to give non-TGNB-related care was associated with 71% increased odds of severe psychological distress and 95% increased odds of suicidal ideation. Further, having to teach doctors about TGNB care and doctors asking invasive questions were associated with all our studied negative mental health outcomes. Doctors asking invasive questions was additionally related to increased odds of heavy alcohol use, marijuana use, and illicit drug use.
Conclusions:
The results of this study indicate that negative health care experiences are significantly associated with mental health and substance use for TGNB adults. Specifically, these results emphasize the role of more subtle forms of discrimination, including a lack of clinician knowledge about the care of TGNB patients, asking invasive questions, and treating TGNB patients with respect.
... This is similar to documented increases in mass media representation of gays and lesbians beginning in the 1990s, which contributed to more gay and lesbian individuals to coming out (Garretson 2015(Garretson , 2018. Parasocial contact with transgender people through the media tends to decrease group bias in individual attitudes (Hoffarth and Hodson 2018;Billard 2019). A study on Caitlyn Jenner's public transition in 2015, for example, showed that respondents who followed the story closely were more likely to view it as a positive change in society . ...
Few public opinion surveys addressed transgender rights prior to 2015, but scholarly attention to these issues began to proliferate with a series of surveys from 2015 and 2016 that identified a number of important variables shaping attitudes toward transgender people and policies. Yet, the political environment surrounding transgender rights has changed significantly since 2015, with increasing public attention to these issues, more prominent position taking by partisan political figures, and substantial shifts in public policy on a wide variety of transgender issues. We examine a wide range of survey items throughout this period to explore how public opinion has evolved over time. Further, using national surveys from 2015 and 2020, we explore whether and how the structure of public opinion may have changed. Our analyses reveal growing support for transgender rights, the increasing importance of political orientations and elite cues in shaping opinion, and substantial variation in attitudes across issues.
... It should also be noted that regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, having TNB friends was associated with an increased likelihood of TNB activism. This finding reflects extant literature that has suggested that exposure to TNB individuals can shift attitudes and behaviors that lower discomfort and transphobia (Acker, 2017;Flores et al., 2018;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). ...
Social workers are expected to serve and advocate for marginalized communities, including but not limited to transgender and nonbinary communities (TNB). However, the extent to which social workers meet this expectation is unknown. Using data from a 2019–2020 survey of students who were enrolled in U.S. social work programs (N = 725), this study examined the predictors for engaging in TNB activism, including interaction effects between subdomains of the adapted Ally Identity Measure and students’ personal endorsement of a Critical Orientation to Social Justice. We found that both students identifying as LGBQ and having more TNB people in one’s social network were associated with an increase in engaging with TNB activism. Among our social work educational variables, we found that students who have a mixed micro/macro focus, those who had taken a course on power, privilege, and oppression, and those who had engaged in intergroup dialogue were more likely to engage in TNB activism. Finally, we found that the interaction effects between the Critical Orientation to Social Justice Scale and two of the adapted Ally Identity Measure subdomains were significant.
... Another study [40] on the improvement of care for transgender people in the Doctor of Pharmacy Curriculum included, among the contents of the educational materials, precise considerations that were related to empathy, in addition to other medical and cultural considerations. Moreover, another study [41] evidenced that increasing the average number of intergroup contacts with transgender people increased empathy toward them and decreased possible existing biases in this regard. ...
Affective-sexual and gender diversity is an increasingly distinctive and extended reality and should be acknowledged and respected. From a psychosocial and educational point of view, it is appropriate to review young people’s attitudes and knowledge regarding this, relating them to aspects such as empathy, violence, or bullying, to implement quality education in the early stages of primary education. The main objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between empathy levels, attitudes toward transsexuality, and bullying among Spanish university students. The sample consisted of 247 students. Instruments were administered to evaluate negative attitudes toward transsexual people, gender ideology, transphobia, bullying, and empathy. Inverse relationships were found between transphobia and empathy. Regression analysis demonstrated the predictive ability of empathy on attitudes toward transsexual people. The results of this study are expected to increase awareness in society and encourage appropriate, satisfactory, or tolerable coexistence, in which all individuals can be free to live and express themselves. While the results indicated that the quality of life of transgender people has comparatively improved, there is still a long way to go.
... This presents a problem in encouraging the type of direct, in-person contact Allport (1954) originally proposed. Importantly, however, the intergroup contact literature has greatly expanded since Allport first proposed his theory, to encompass indirect contact including contact with media that features outgroup members (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Tropp et al., 2016). ...
Recently, gender diversity has become more visible in the U.S. Yet many still struggle to understand gender identities outside of the binary of man and woman (Buck, 2016). One lay theory children and adults may use to think about gender and specific gender identities is essentialism. Essentialism is a set of beliefs that center around the idea that certain categories have an unknown or ill-defined essence. As a result of this presumed essence, the categories are thought to be biologically based, discrete from one another, informative about category members’ behaviors and preferences, and immutable. Although prior research has established the use of essentialist beliefs about gender from an early age, several questions remain, especially at a time when gender diversity is becoming more visible. In this dissertation, I: (1) developed a new scale of gender essentialism for children five to ten years of age, the Gender Essentialism Scale for Children (GES-C); and (2) examined the effect of stories about trans-identity characters on children’s understanding of transgender identities and gender essentialism. The GES-C is a 16-item measure of gender essentialism with four four-item subscales measuring the components of essentialism described above. I found the GES-C to be a reliable and valid scale with 316 participants aged five to ten years old. I also performed a confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) using structural equation modeling (SEM) and found my scale to have fit indices outside of commonly used cutoffs for good model fit but in line with the other scales for children specifically developed for use in developmental research psychology. Next, I conducted a study with 173 five- to six-year-old and nine- to ten-year-old children to test what children can learn about transgender identities from stories and whether this can lead to a reduction in gender essentialist beliefs. Participants in this study were assigned to one of three conditions, varying in the story that they heard: the Realistic story about a transgender girl socially transitioning from a boy to a girl; the Metaphorical/Fantastical story about an anthropomorphized, red-labeled marker who discovers their identity as blue (this story could be interpreted as a metaphor for being transgender); or No story (control). Hearing the realistic story about the transgender girl significantly improved understanding of transgender identities. And although I found no overall reduction in gender essentialism, essentialist beliefs about the immutability of gender were reduced after hearing the realistic story. These findings underscore the importance of examining gender essentialism, wholly and by component, in children. Being able to efficiently and effectively measure multiple components of gender essentialism at one time allows researchers to better measure when and how essentialist beliefs change in children. It will be especially important to understand how children’s gender essentialist beliefs may or may not change as a result of the increased visibility of gender diverse identities.
... Importantly, the contact need not be in person, as even electronic interactions can reduce prejudice (Boccanfuso et al., 2021). Other forms of contact also elicit positive transgender attitudes, such as seeing transgender individuals in the media (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). The latter findings are particularly important in sport, where transgender athletes like Chris Mosier have an increasingly large media presence, thereby signaling the potential for improved attitudes. ...
Questions about transgender individuals’ place in sport persist. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to focus on transgender inclusion in sport. Drawing from varied perspectives, the authors present five reasons for inclusion, basing their arguments on sport as a human right, fairness, gendered notions of athleticism, well-being, and economics. The authors then present a multilevel model for including transgender athletes, coaches, and administrators in sport, identifying factors at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of analysis.
... In reality, however, the population of transgender people is estimated to be small (0.6% of the U.S. population; Flores, Herman, Gates, & Brown, 2016). Transgender people may also be reluctant to disclose their identity due to the stigma associated with their identity (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Murib, 2015). Consequently, most cisgender Americans may have a small chance of personally knowing transgender men and transgender women, which can prevent public opinion toward transgender people from changing in a positive direction. ...
Given the prejudice against transgender people and the setbacks faced by transgender political candidates, an online survey was conducted (among a convenience sample of American adults recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk) to investigate what influence public support for transgender candidates and rights and how to increase such support. The study found that moral traditionalism was negatively associated with support for transgender candidates and rights. The diversity of interpersonal contact with transgender individuals not only was positively related to the support but undermined the negative relationships between moral traditionalism and the support. More importantly, the study showed that anxiety toward transgender people mediated all the relationships observed here. These findings not only indicate how and why moral traditionalism and interpersonal contact diversity may affect public opinion toward transgender candidates and rights but also suggest ways to increase public support for transgender candidates and rights.
... Finally, future research in this area would benefit from considering participants' own existing contact experiences with transgender peers or adults. Although intergroup contact with transgender people is uncommon, it is effective in reducing prejudice (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Given the importance of intergroup contact as a prejudice reduction method, future work in this area ought to consider whether contact is related to evaluations of challenger peers. ...
In‐group members who challenge group norms (hereon “challenger peers”) often are evaluated less positively by their peers compared to those who adhere to group norms. In the present study children (n = 118, Mage = 10.01) and adolescents (n = 132, Mage = 13.32; total n = 269) were inducted into a gender‐based group who endorsed an activity norm. Participants evaluated a challenger peer who was either cisgender or transgender. Adolescent girls, compared to girls in childhood, individually evaluated a challenger peer more positively while perceiving their group would be less positive than they themselves would be. In contrast, boys in both childhood and adolescence individually evaluated a challenger peer less positively and believed their group also would. These effects were independent of the challenger peer's gender identity, suggesting that in the context of evaluating a challenger to a stereotypical gender norm, adherence to the norm can take primacy over gender identity.
... To avoid respondents readily identifying the purpose of questions, we also assessed perceptions of other federal agencies and organizations: National Rifle Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Civil Liberties Union, and Department of Justice. Use of attitude thermometers is a common and valid approach in survey research concerning prejudice and intergroup contact(e.g., glasford & Johnston, 2018;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). resUlts hmBc Behavior scale factor strUctUre, internal consistency, anD Descriptive statistics ...
Hate-motivated behavior (HMB) in criminal and noncriminal forms is a public health dilemma. This study is an advanced measurement of the perpetration of HMB through development of the Hate-Motivated Behavior Checklist (HMBC). Through a cross-sectional online-administered survey of adults ( N = 289), we examined: (a) factor structure and internal consistency of HMBC behaviors, (b) descriptive patterns of targeted groups and motivations for HMB, and (c) correlates of HMBC behaviors. Findings support a single-factor HMBC behaviors score with high internal consistency. HMB based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex were the most commonly endorsed. The most highly endorsed motivations for HMB were perceived intrusion and perceived threat. Antigay prejudice, antilesbian prejudice, positive views of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Nazis were among significant correlates of HMB perpetration. The HMBC represents a preliminary research measurement tool for the assessment of HMB in need of further psychometric study.
... Altemeyer (2006) described individuals who hold strong RWA beliefs as likely to submit to authority figures and hold harsher attitudes toward those who do not conform to societal norms. Considering these characteristics, RWA beliefs have been evaluated extensively as related to prejudicial attitudes in various samples toward various "out-groups" including racial stereotyping, stigma toward transgender-identifying individuals, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, individuals classified as sex offenders, sexually transmitted infections, and immigrants and refugees (Cribbs & Austin, 2011;DeLuca, Vaccaro, Seda, et al., 2018;Foster & Byers, 2008;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Thomsen et al., 2008;Von Collani et al., 2010;Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al., 2020). ...
This study evaluated the relationship between right-wing authoritarian (RWA) beliefs and mental health stigma, patient case conceptualizations, and treatment recommendations using secondary analysis of a sample of treatment providers. A total of 246 providers (86 medical students, 67 doctoral psychology students, and 93 licensed clinical psychologists) completed online surveys including measures of RWA beliefs, mental health stigma, and qualitative items regarding conceptualization and treatment recommendations regarding a patient vignette. RWA beliefs were significantly associated with mental health stereotypes, microaggressions, and desire for social distance, and a significant interaction was found for provider type and RWA such that this relationship was strongest for medical students compared with psychologically trained subsamples. High RWA beliefs were also associated with less consideration of the vignette’s presenting complaint, a lower likelihood to recommend treatment follow-up, and a higher likelihood to recommend simple “lifestyle changes.” Findings suggest that RWA beliefs may be a distinguishing correlate among providers regarding mental health stigma and are an important potential target for antistigma interventions for treatment professionals.
... These findings may be equivalent for female targets, or may be different due to additional operations of androcentric norms (Bailey et al., 2019) or to specific beliefs linking gay men with early death, which may be a consequence of AIDS-related stigmatization (Herek & Glunt, 1993). Fourth, this set of studies did not examine distal causes of these stereotypes, such as the potential role played by selective media exposure or intergroup contact in the defaulting process (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Indeed, the reduced visibility in the media or the limited contact with elderly gay men might contribute to the cognitive representations of gay men as young by default and elderly men as heterosexual by default. ...
Four studies analyzed how sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. gay) and age categories (young vs. elderly) referring to men are cognitively combined. In Study 1, young gay men were judged as more prototypical of gay men than adult or elderly gay men, while young, adult, and elderly heterosexual men were perceived as equally prototypical of heterosexual men. In Study 2, gay men were stereotyped more by young rather than elderly stereotypical traits, while heterosexual men were not stereotyped in terms of age. In Study 3, elderly men were stereotyped more by heterosexual than gay-stereotypical traits, while young men were not stereotyped in terms of sexual orientation. In Study 4, gay men were judged to be young rather than elderly, while elderly men were judged to be heterosexual rather than gay. Overall, elderly gay men were overlooked when processing their constituent categories, “gay” and “elderly” men. Implications for models of intersectionality are discussed.
... Thus, especially for outgroups that individuals are unlikely to encounter in daily life, media serve as a primary means of prejudice reduction and opinion (trans)formation. While Schiappa et al. (2005Schiappa et al. ( , 2006) and others who have tested their theory in the context of LGBTQ people (e.g., Billard, 2019a;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018;Ortiz & Harwood, 2007) only assessed the relationship between media contact and prejudice, other work has directly investigated the effects of media contact on public opinion on gay and lesbian (Bond & Compton, 2015;Garretson, 2015aGarretson, , 2015b and transgender (Gillig et al., 2018) rights. Consistent with the parasocial contact hypothesis, each study found that mediated interpersonal contact with LGBTQ media figures increases support for pro-LGBTQ policy. ...
... The Sobel test is implemented by testing the hypothesis that there is no statistical difference between the total effect (i.e., the effect of an independent variable on the outcome variable) and the direct effect (i.e., the effect of the same independent variable on the outcome variable) after taking into account the impact of a potential mediator. 5 Other studies also employ a dichotomous measure of intergroup contact(Garner, 2013;Hoffarth & Hodson, 2018). Unfortunately, multiitem measures of intergroup contact are not available in the 2017 CMDS. ...
We utilise the implementation of the 1986 Compulsory Education Law in China as a natural experiment to examine the relationship between educational attainment and migrant entrepreneurship. Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamics Survey, results from our preferred two-stage least square model, which uses instrumental variable and difference-in-differences estimators to correct for endogeneity, suggest that having one additional year of education generates a 3.5 percentage points increase in the probability of being an employer entrepreneur vis-à-vis an employee, and a 4.7 percentage points increase in the probability of being an employer entrepreneur vis-à-vis a solo entrepreneur. Having better education, however, does not affect the propensity to become an entrepreneur in general vis-à-vis an employee or a solo entrepreneur vis-à-vis an employee. These results are robust to various checks including alternative estimation methods and ways of defining entrepreneurship. We also explore the channels through which educational attainment influences whether one chooses to become an employer entrepreneur. Our findings suggest that assortative mating, difficulties experienced in the host location, permanent settlement intention and social capital mediate the relationship between better education and the choice of both becoming an employer entrepreneur vis-à-vis a solo entrepreneur and an employer entrepreneur vis-à-vis an employee, while risk preferences are a mechanism through which education affects the probability of becoming an employer entrepreneur as opposed to a solo entrepreneur.
As harmful conspiracy beliefs against transgender people are becoming increasingly popular, three experiments examined how cisgender people's contact with transgender individuals might reduce these beliefs. In Study 1a (N = 222), positive parasocial contact with transgender creators on TikTok (vs. no contact) was found to increase perspective-taking, which was associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for frequency of contact and prejudice. Study 1b (N = 302) replicated this effect when controlling for frequency of contact. Study 2 (N = 220) aimed to manipulate perspective-taking. Contrary to predictions, asking participants to actively perspective-take (vs. no perspective-taking) did not increase perspective-taking (manipulation check) or reduce conspiracy beliefs. However, as all the studies measured participants’ frequency of positive and negative contact with transgender people, we pooled the data to explore whether these forms of contact were also linked with perspective-taking and conspiracy beliefs (combined N = 743). A positive relationship between frequency of positive contact with transgender people and perspective-taking was found, which was then associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for prejudice and experimental conditions. Our findings underscore the potential of positive contact, including via TikTok, to foster perspective-taking, which may mitigate conspiracy beliefs against transgender people.
Seventy years of research on intergroup contact, or face-to-face interactions between members of opposing social groups, demonstrates that positive contact typically reduces prejudice and increases social cohesion. Extant syntheses, however, have not considered the full breadth of contact valence (positive/negative) and have treated self-selection as a threat to validity. This research bridges intergroup contact theory with sequential sampling models of impression formation to assess contact effects across all valences. From the premise that positive versus negative contact instigates differential resampling of outgroup experiences when self-selection is possible, we advance and meta-analytically test new predictions for the moderation of valenced contact effects and negativity bias as a function of people’s opportunity and motivation to self-select in and out of contact. Our random-effects synthesis of positive and negative intergroup contact studies (238 independent samples, 936 nested effects; total N = 152,985) found significant valenced contact effects: Positive contact systematically associates with lower prejudice, and negative contact associates with higher prejudice. Critically, the detrimental effect of negative contact is significantly larger than the benefit of positive contact. This negativity bias is particularly pronounced under conditions in which one can self-select, is motivated to avoid contact, among male-dominated and prejudiced samples, in contact with stigmatized, low status, low socioeconomic status outgroups, along nonconcealable stigma, with nonintimate contact partners in informal settings and in collectivistic societies. Considering individuals’ motivation and opportunity to self-select, together with contact valence, therefore offers a more nuanced and integrated platform to design contact-based interventions and policies across varied contact ecologies.
The current study explored whether positive contact through stories could influence how young children think about transgender identities and gender in general. A total of 174 children ages 5–6 and 9–10 were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Jazz (participants watched a video regarding a transgender child named Jazz), Blue (participants watched a video regarding a marker that looked red on the outside but inside was really blue) and control (no video). Both videos described the main character as feeling different inside than outside, and their social transition to their preferred identity; researcher scaffolding supported the video messages. Children who viewed the Jazz video had: (a) greater understanding of transgender identities and (b) no overall differences in gender essentialism, but (c) lower gender essentialism on three specific measures (gender immutability, innate toy behaviours and innate preferences). Also, gender essentialism was lower in older versus younger children. In this study, a direct, realistic story was the only effective means of teaching children about transgender identities and reducing belief in gender immutability. Thus, stories can be a way to teach children about the social world and change essentialist beliefs, but the impact may be limited and greatly affected by features of the story.
The present research focuses on the secondary transfer effect of contact, a relatively less researched dimension of intergroup contact, on reconciliation in the context of one of the most intractable and longest surviving interethnic conflicts in Europe, the Cyprus conflict. Currently, Cyprus is home to three groups with differential social, economic and political statuses: (1) disadvantaged low‐status Turkish immigrants, (2) simultaneously advantaged (relative to Turkish immigrants) and disadvantaged (relative to Greek Cypriots) Turkish Cypriots and (3) historically advantaged high‐status Greek Cypriots. Across two studies (Study 1 N = 270 and Study 2 N = 501), we test whether and how Turkish immigrants’ contact with Turkish Cypriots shapes Turkish immigrants' support for reconciliation and willingness to live with Greek Cypriots via attitude generalisation. We also investigate whether Turkish immigrants’ perceived ingroup reputation qualifies this process. Controlling for the effects of direct contact with Greek Cypriots, our results show that both quantity and quality of contact with proximal Turkish Cypriots were indirectly associated with greater support for reconciliation with them and more willingness to live with Greek Cypriots via positive attitudes towards the primary (Turkish Cypriots) and positive attitudes towards the secondary (Greek Cypriots), sequentially. Moreover, we found that the perceived higher ingroup reputation across the island positively moderated the indirect effects of primary group contact on support for reconciliation and willingness to live with Greek Cypriots. That is, more contact with the primary outgroup was positively linked to greater support for reconciliation with the distal secondary outgroup Greek Cypriots when perceptions of ingroup reputation were higher.
Increasing numbers of individuals are openly identifying outside of the gender binary, which may have broader effects on how people view gender. Little research has examined how contact with gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals may influence others’ conceptualizations of gender. Through seven studies with 2,547 participants, we found that contact with GNC individuals corresponded to reduced gender essentialism. In two correlational studies, we found that contact with GNC people predicted reduced gender essentialism even when controlling for sexism and contact with women. In a series of four experimental studies, we found some evidence that imagining contact with a GNC person resulted in significantly less gender essentialism than imagining contact with a woman, though this was not consistent across studies using other types of control conditions. In a final study, we found that media contact with either a trans man or a genderfluid person reduced gender essentialism compared to contact with a cisgender man, demonstrating that contact effects generalized across exposure to different types of gender identities. This work suggests that a person’s conceptualization of gender may be changed through contact with GNC people.
Was denken junge Männer in Deutschland über sexuelle und geschlechtliche Vielfalt? Konkret gefragt, wie sind ihre Einstellungen zu Gleichberechtigung, Heirat und Adoptionsrechten von homosexuellen Personen sowie zu Rechten von trans* und intergeschlechtlichen Menschen? Vor dem Hintergrund der trotz gesellschaftlicher und rechtlicher Veränderungen weiterhin häufig berichteten Vorurteile und Diskriminierungen gegenüber lesbischen, schwulen, bisexuellen, trans* und inter* (LSBTI*) Personen werden Einstellungen junger Männer detailliert beschrieben und mögliche Erklärungsansätze dieser Einstellungen genauer beleuchtet. Mit Blick auf aktuelle (rechtspopulistische) Diskurse und das dort kolportierte Bild von homonegativen und intoleranten Personengruppen (siehe Einleitung dieses Sammelbands) werden in diesem Kapitel die Einstellungen von jungen Männern mit und ohne internationale Geschichte betrachtet, operationalisiert als die drei Gruppen „ohne internationale Geschichte“, „türkeistämmig“ und „mit Fluchtgeschichte“. Die Datenbasis liefert das JUMEN Forschungsprojekt, für das in diesem Kapitel die Daten von qualitativen Interviews (n = 62) und einer quantitativen Onlinebefragung (n = 819) ausgewertet wurden. In den Daten zeigten sich einerseits im Durchschnitt eher positive Einstellungen zu LSBTI*-Themen, andererseits äußerte ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der Teilnehmer auch ambivalente oder negative Einstellungen. Sowohl in den qualitativen Befunden als auch in varianz- sowie regressionsanalytischen quantitativen Auswertungen erwies sich die Geschlechtsidentität als zentraler Prädiktor der LSBTI*-Einstellungen. Männer, die sich selbst als stärker „typisch männlich“ wahrnahmen, zufriedener mit dem eigenen Geschlecht waren und einen höheren Anpassungsdruck hinsichtlich geschlechtsrollenkonformen Verhaltens empfanden, zeigten negativere Einstellungen zu LSBTI*-Themen. Darüber hinaus sagte eine stärkere Religiosität, nicht aber die Religionszugehörigkeit der befragten jungen Männer negativere Einstellungen vorher. Die Befunde in diesem Kapitel bestätigen auch die Annahme, dass eine mögliche internationale Geschichte eine distale Variable darstellt: Unterschiede zwischen den drei Gruppen wurden kleiner bzw. verschwanden, wenn für weitere Variablen kontrolliert wurde. Die Befunde werden hinsichtlich ihrer Relevanz für die praktische Arbeit mit Jungen und jungen Männern diskutiert.
Transgender people often experience discrimination and prejudice; therefore, it is important to explore the underlying factors that contribute to prejudice. Past research has found that individual difference variables (e.g., gender, political conservatism) predict transgender prejudice. In the current research, we aimed to better understand the association between transgender prejudice and 15 individual difference predictors (i.e., gender, sexual orientation, single-item political orientation, social dominance orientation, right wing authoritarianism, religiosity, religious fundamentalism, gender essentialism, gender role beliefs, sexism, gender self-esteem, aggression, lesbian, gay, bisexual [LGB] attitudes, contact with LGB individuals, and contact with transgender individuals) by conducting a random-effects meta-analysis. After screening, 82 studies with a total of 36,285 participants met the criteria and were included in the analyses. Across all studies, all predictors except for gender self-esteem (r = .09; 95% CI [-.004, .18]) were significant in predicting transgender prejudice. Overall, there were small to large effect sizes, with LGB attitudes having the largest magnitude (r = .71; 95% CI [.65, .76]) and aggression having the smallest magnitude (r = .15; 95% CI [.08, .23]). These results provide further evidence that attitudes toward transgender people are significantly related to individual differences, gender beliefs, sexual orientation attitudes, and social ideologies.
We examined associations between prejudice toward transgender people, aggression proneness, history of family violence, contact and closeness with transgender people, and education about issues that impact transgender individuals. We also examined the moderating effects of contact, education, and closeness on the relations between aggression and history of family violence with prejudice. There were 360 participants (M age = 31.34, SD = 12.47, range 18-75) who completed the survey online. Participants were recruited through social media, websites, and MTurk. Higher levels of aggression proneness were related to higher levels of prejudice. Higher levels of education about issues that impact transgender people and prior contact with a transgender person were associated with less prejudice. In a multiple regression analysis, the strongest predictor of prejudice was education about transgender people and topics. Moderation analyses revealed that prior contact may buffer the effects of aggression proneness on prejudiced beliefs.
Research question(s): What barriers and facilitators influence transgender people’s participation in physical activity? Background: Transgender equality has become a high-profile issue in recent years with transgender athletes making headlines in both the USA and the UK. Social and health inequalities experienced by transgender individuals are widely recognised. Physical activity promotion is a core area of public health due to its documented benefits. It is therefore important to understand reasons for participation rates in this community to support effective policies and practice. Methods: Data base searches were used to identify relevant studies. Studies were screened and data extracted systematically. Narrative synthesis was utilised to analyse results from heterogenous studies. Results: Ten relevant studies were identified, including six qualitative and four quantitative studies. Narrative synthesis determined five themes: changing rooms, medical transition, sports environments and activities, relationships and social support, physical and psychological safety. Participants described intense experiences of vulnerability, victimisation, and stigma. Conclusions: There are multiple intersecting barriers and facilitators for transgender people’s participation in physical activity. Practical barriers, such as lack of appropriate changing facilities or the gendered nature of sports teams and activities, may contribute. But more subtle, psychological issues, of feeling safe and fitting in may be equally important.
Allport's Theory of Interpersonal Contact suggests that coming into contact with a member of an outgroup should increase support for that outgroup. Previous studies find mixed results when applying Allport's theory to reported contact with transgender people. We posit that this is due to imprecise and aggregated measures of contact and a lack of attention to the differences between contact that is ephemeral or ongoing and voluntary or obligatory. We explore our theories with data from a large, high-quality survey conducted in early 2020. We find that while various forms of contact (including voluntary and obligatory) predict warmer ratings on feeling thermometers, only close personal friendships-contact that is voluntary and ongoing-predicts attitudes toward transgender-inclusive policies.
LBGTQ + adoption is an under-researched area (Schumm, 2016 Schumm, W. R. (2016). A review and critique of research on same-sex parenting and adoption. Psychological Reports, 119(3), 641–760. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294116665594[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), particularly for bisexual and transgender parents (Farr & Goldberg, 2018 Farr, R. H., & Goldberg, A. E. (2018). Sexual orientation, gender identity, and adoption law. Family Court Review, 56(3), 374–383. https://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12354[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We focused on young adults’ perceptions of bisexual and transgender couples and their adopted child. Participants were 100 adults with a mean age of 19.98 (SD = 1.71). Majority categories were women (70%), Black American (45%) and heterosexual (75%). Participants provided their opinions of a randomly distributed vignette describing adoptive couples with varying non-heteronormative visibility. We also assessed participants’ perceptions of opposition faced by the adopted child of a transgender parent and their attitudes toward LGBTQ + individuals. Results revealed support for bisexual adoptive parents and perceptions of positive outcomes for their adopted child. We found ambivalence about whether the adopted child of a transgender parent would face individual opposition and disagreement that the child would face normative opposition. Women, non-heterosexual adults, and politically liberal adults expressed the least agreement that the adopted child of a transgender parent would face normative opposition and that the transgender parent would influence the child’s gender identity and sexual orientation. These same groups were also the ones with the most positive attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals, perhaps suggesting that young adults see society as mirroring their own attitudes.
Between one-fifth and a third of people who are transgender have been refused treatment by a medical provider due to their gender identity. Yet, we know little about the factors that shape public opinion on this issue. We present results from a nationally representative survey experiment ( N = 4,876) that examines how common justifications issued by providers for the denial of healthcare, and the race and gender identity of the person being denied care, intersect to shape public opinion concerning the acceptability of treatment refusal. We find that religious objections are viewed as less acceptable compared to a medical justification, in this case, inadequate training. However, the difference between religious objections and inadequate training is larger when the person being denied healthcare is White or Asian than when the person is Black or Latinx. Analysis of open-ended responses indicates the modest effect of doctor’s rationale on attitudes toward treatment refusal with respect to Black and Latinx patients is partially attributable to a racialized, free-market logic. Respondents were more likely to advocate for a doctor’s fundamental right to refuse service when evaluating Black and Latinx patients compared to White patients. We discuss the implications of these findings for intersectional approaches to trans studies and future public opinion research.
Although intergroup contact reduces prejudice generally, there are growing calls to examine contextual factors in conjunction with contact. Such an approach benefits from more sophisticated analytic approaches, such as multilevel modelling, that take both the individual (Level-1) and their environment (Level-2) into account. Using this approach, we go beyond attitudes to assess both individual and contextual predictors of support for gay/lesbian and transgender rights. Using a sample of participants across 77 countries, results revealed that personal gay/lesbian contact (Level-1) and living in a country with more gay/lesbian rights (Level-2) predicted greater support for gay/lesbian rights (n = 71,991). Likewise, transgender contact and living in a country with more transgender rights predicted more support for transgender rights (n = 70,056). Cross-level interactions are also presented and discussed. Overall, findings highlight the importance of both individual and contextual factors in predicting support for LGBT communities.
Self-expansion theory suggests that people are motivated to broaden the self (Aron & Aron, 1986; Aron & Aron, 1996; Aron, Aron, & Norman, 2001). A primary way of expanding the self is through close relationships, where others become included in the self-concept. A large body of research on self-expansion theory has examined self-expansion in close relationships in the context of romantic dyads. We expand on this research to shed light on a growing line of work that explores self-expansion and intergroup contact. We begin with an overview of self-expansion theory, focusing on the motivational aspect and the cognitive aspect of inclusion of other in the self. We then discuss self-expansion and intergroup contact at the level of friendships and broaden this application to intergroup contact in romantic couples. Further, we discuss individual differences in motivation to self-expand via intergroup relations and examine research on intergroup relations, both as a means of individual self-expansion and as a mechanism for prejudice reduction and improved outgroup attitudes. We also review the literature on how inclusion of other in the self is linked with positive intergroup outcomes. Finally, we suggest next steps to broaden and deepen this important work and discuss implications and connections with work on self-construal.
A 2017 compendium of laws relating to sexual orientation all around the world, with maps and charts. The 2017 edition (digital) contains thousands of hyperlinks to black letter laws and numerous primary and secondary sources around issues to do with criminalisation (various sorts), protection (issues such as hate crime, etc) and recognition (family structures, etc).
This chapter raises important questions about the nature of deception and status of deceiver, analyzing media discourses surrounding instances of transgender “passing.” These discourses position transgender people as deceivers who live out their genders to seduce heterosexuals, scrutinizing their appearances for signs of their “true gender.” Contradictorily, successful “passing” as cisgender legitimates a transgender person’s gender identity, but also renders them more malicious in their deception. As such, media discourses surrounding transgender people who “pass” justify punishment for their deception through physical violence. In this chapter, Billard explores these tensions, challenging the application of the label “deception” by the social majority to those of marginal identities, particularly inconspicuous ones, as it serves to delegitimate authentic identities and police the boundaries of social hierarchies.
We demonstrate that pedagogic interventions utilising mediated contact and the parasocial contact hypothesis provide an effective means of instantiating both an immediate and long-term reduction in prejudice towards transgender people. Through application of the parasocial contact hypothesis, our quasi-experiment demonstrates that exposure to the combined intervention of a panel presentation and a trans-themed film resulted in a significant reduction of self-reported prejudice immediately after exposure and this effect persisted up to 6 weeks later in a sample of 66 female university students. In addition to testing this effect, we also assess the relationship between prejudice towards transgender people and other forms of prejudice, including old-fashioned and modern prejudice towards gay men and lesbian women. In doing so we demonstrate that prejudice towards trans people appears to be conceptually related to prejudice towards gay men and not lesbian women. Limitations and directions for future research are explored.
Transgender individuals challenge the traditional assumption that an individual’s gender identity is permanently determined by their assigned sex at birth. Perceiving ambiguity surrounding indeterminate gender identities associated with transgender individuals may be especially disturbing for those who generally dislike ambiguity and have preference for order and predictability, that is, for people scoring higher on Need for Closure (NFC). We tested the associations between NFC and transphobia in two studies using community samples from the United Kingdom (n = 231) and Belgium (n = 175), and we examined whether right-wing ideological attitudes and traditional gender role beliefs mediated these relationships. Confirming our expectations, we found that NFC was significantly associated with transphobia through both stronger adherence to social conventions and obedience to authorities (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism) and stronger endorsements of traditional gender roles in the UK and Belgium, as well as through stronger preferences for hierarchy and social inequality (i.e., social dominance orientation) in the UK. Our results suggest that transgender individuals are more likely to be targets of prejudice by those higher in NFC at least partly due to the strong preference for preserving societal traditions and the resistance to a perceived disruption of traditional gender norms. Hence, attempts to reduce transphobia might be especially challenging among those high in NFC. Nevertheless, prejudice-reducing interventions could incorporate techniques that satisfy epistemic needs for predictability, certainty, and simple structure which may have higher chances of success among high NFC individuals.
Although binegativity, the stigmatization of bisexuality, is prevalent among heterosexual and lesbian and gay communities, little research has addressed how the quantity and quality of intergroup contact affects binegativity. Drawing on intergroup contact theory, this study examined contact with and attitudes toward bisexuals among heterosexual undergraduates, heterosexual adults, and lesbians and gay men. Knowing more bisexuals (quantity) predicted more positive attitudes toward and decreased intergroup anxiety with male and female bisexuals. A multilevel structural equation model indicated that contact quality simultaneously predicted higher perceived stability of female bisexuality (but not male bisexuality) and tolerance of and less intergroup anxiety with male and female bisexuals when contact quantity was controlled for. This research suggests that both quantity and quality of contact with bisexuals predicts improved intergroup attitudes. Implications for future research on reducing binegativity are discussed.
Although media representations of trans women are becoming increasingly common, many trans women still face discrimination in their daily lives, in part due to prejudices and stereotypes that are perpetuated by media. In two studies, we investigated group differences in baseline transphobia linked to gender, sexual orientation, religiosity, and political ideology; we then measured whether different representations of trans women in media led to attitude change. After providing information about their baseline attitudes, participants were randomly assigned to positive, negative, or control film-viewing conditions, with a problematic condition (i.e., sympathetic portrayal of a trans woman by a cisgender male actor) added in study 2. In each condition, participants viewed two depictions of trans women from film or television shows. After watching the clips, participants’ attitudes toward trans individuals were re-assessed. Heterosexuals, Christians, conservatives, and men (study 2 only) showed greater transphobia at pretest than LGB individuals, atheists, liberals, and women, respectively. Attitudes of participants who viewed negative film depictions of trans women became more negative after viewing the clips. We discuss implications of these findings in relation to recent media interest in representing trans women.
Within psychology and psychiatry, gender identity has developed at least two distinguishable meanings: awareness of anatomy (e.g., Stoller, 1974) and endorsing specific traits that are stereotypical of different gender groups (e.g., Bem, 1974; Wood & Eagly, 2010). However, neither existing approach has considered gender identity to be a self-categorization process that exists within personality science. In this chapter, I develop the argument that gender identity can be fruitfully explored as a personality process. I use both classic and modern personality process approaches to demonstrate that theorizing about gender identity from the personality perspective clarifies and complements-rather than eclipses-prior theorizing. Additionally, several unique insights are available to researchers when gender identity is approached as a personality process, and some of these insights are identified within this chapter.
We advocate for the integration of transgender spectrum experiences alongside cisgender experiences (i.e., having the same current gender identity label as one's birth-assigned gender category) to provide hitherto unrealized insights within the psychology of gender identity development. Specifically, we propose using personality theory to understand gender self-categorization for both profiles of experience because this perspective allows the structure and stability of self-categorization to be explored in a single, extant framework. Moreover, the dominant model of gender identity development in psychology and qualitative studies within sociology and related fields both suggest that self-categorization may in fact be similar between the 2 profiles. The integration also dispels 2 persistent myths about gender selfcategorization: (a) that it is binary and (b) that it is an active psychological process for transgender spectrum, but not cisgender, individuals. Finally, we translate these new theoretical insights into testable research hypotheses within the mainstream of personality research.
The outcomes of social interactions among members of different groups (e.g., racial groups, political groups, sexual orientation groups) have long been of interest to psychologists. Two related literatures on the topic have emerged-the intergroup interaction literature and the intergroup contact literature-in which divergent conclusions have been reported. Intergroup interaction is typically found to have negative effects tied to intergroup bias, producing heightened stress, intergroup anxiety, or outgroup avoidance, whereas intergroup contact is typically found to have positive effects tied to intergroup bias, predicting lower intergroup anxiety and lower prejudice. We examine these paradoxical findings, proposing that researchers contributing to the two literatures are examining different levels of the same phenomenon and that methodological differences can account for the divide between the literatures. Further, we introduce a mathematical model by which the findings of the two literatures can be reconciled. We believe that adopting this model will streamline thinking in the field and will generate integrative new research in which investigators examine how a person's experiences with diversity unfold.
© The Author(s) 2015.
Many studies of anti-trans* prejudice have measured such attitudes using the Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS; Hill & Willoughby, 2005). The GTS is unique in assessing negative attitudes and propensity for violence toward trans* people. The present research addressed previously observed limitations in the psychometric properties of data produced by the GTS, including inconsistencies in factor structure and subscale scoring across studies. Results across the present 2 studies (Ns = 314 and 250) yielded 2 refined versions of the GTS: the 22-item GTS-Revised (GTS-R) and a more abbreviated 13-item GTS-R-Short Form (GTS-R-SF), each of which produced stable 2-factor structures corresponding with the intended negative attitudes and propensity for violence dimensions of the GTS. The 2 versions differ in that the GTS-R-SF Genderism/Transphobia subscale focuses on more severe expressions of prejudicial attitudes, whereas the longer GTS-R Genderism/Transphobia subscale assesses subtle expressions of prejudice as well. The Gender-Bashing subscale is identical across the 2 versions. Thus, researchers and practitioners may choose the GTS-R or GTS-R-SF depending on the breadth of prejudicial attitudes they wish to assess. Reliability estimates for GTS-R and GTS-R-SF scale and subscale item responses were acceptable and stable across the 2 studies, and validity evidence was garnered in Study 2. These findings can inform use of the GTS-R and GTS-R-SF in research and practice settings, where psychometric precision and efficiency are both critical. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Abstract This paper is based upon a grounded theory analysis of interviews with transgender-identified people from different regions of the United States. Participants held a variety of gender identities under the transgender rubric (e.g., crossdresser, transman, transwoman, butch lesbian). Interviews explored the participants' experiences in arriving at their gender identity. This paper presents three clusters of findings related to the common processes of transgender identity development. This process was made possible by accessibility of transgender narratives that injected hope into what was a childhood replete with criticism and scrutiny. Ultimately, participants came to their identities through balancing a desire for authenticity with demands of necessity - meaning that they weighed their internal gender experience with considerations about their available resources, coping skills and the consequences of gender transitions. The implications of these findings are considered in terms of their contribution to gender theory, research, and clinical support for transgender clients.
We introduce intergroup disgust as an individual difference and contextual manipulation. As an individual difference, intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG-DS) represents affect-laden revulsion toward social outgroups, incorporating beliefs in stigma transfer and social superiority. Study 1 (5 samples, N = 708) validates the ITG-DS scale. Higher ITG-DS scorers demonstrated greater general disgust sensitivity, disease concerns, authoritarian/conservative ideologies, and negative affect. Greater ITG-DS correlated with stronger outgroup threat perceptions and discrimination, and uniquely predicted negative outgroup attitudes beyond well-established prejudice-predictors. Intergroup disgust was experimentally manipulated in Study 2, exposing participants (n = 164) to a travel blog concerning contact with a disgust-evoking (vs. neutral) outgroup. Manipulated disgust generated negative outgroup evaluations through greater threat and anxiety. This mediation effect was moderated: Those higher (vs. lower) in ITG-DS did not experience stronger disgust, threat, or anxiety reactions, but demonstrated stronger translation of aversive reactions (especially outgroup threat) into negative attitudes. Theory development and treatment implications are considered.
We propose a communication analogue to Allport's (19541.
Allport GW 1954 The nature of prejudice Cambridge, MA Perseus Books View all references) Contact Hypothesis called the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis (PCH). If people process mass-mediated parasocial interaction in a manner similar to interpersonal interaction, then the socially beneficial functions of intergroup contact may result from parasocial contact. We describe and test the PCH with respect to majority group members' level of prejudice in three studies, two involving parasocial contact with gay men (Six Feet Under and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) and one involving parasocial contact with comedian and male transvestite Eddie Izzard. In all three studies, parasocial contact was associated with lower levels of prejudice. Moreover, tests of the underlying mechanisms of PCH were generally supported, suggesting that parasocial contact facilitates positive parasocial responses and changes in beliefs about the attributes of minority group categories.
This research applies a social cognitive theory perspective to the study of mediated intergroup contact. It was hypothesized that exposure to positive intergroup contact on television would be associated with more positive intergroup attitudes. Some support for this hypothesis was found for exposure to gay-straight and Black-White interactions. It was also hypothesized that identification with a character belonging to the viewer's ingroup and perceived typicality of a character from an outgroup would be associated with more positive intergroup attitudes. Some support for these hypotheses emerged with regard to associations between exposure to televised gay-straight interactions and homophobic attitudes.
This paper reviews the evidence for a secondary transfer effect of intergroup contact. Following a contact’s typical primary reduction in prejudice toward the outgroup involved in the contact, this effect involves a further, secondary reduction in prejudice toward noninvolved outgroups. Employing longitudinal German probability samples, we found that significant secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact exist, but they were limited to specific outgroups that are similar to the contacted outgroup in perceived stereotypes, status or stigma. Since the contact-prejudice link is bidirectional, the effect is inflated when prior prejudice reducing contact is not controlled. The strongest evidence derives from experimental research. Both cognitive (dissonance) and affective (evaluative conditioning) explanations for the effect are offered.
In a two-wave national AIDS telephone survey, a probability sample of English-speaking adults indicated their attitudes toward gay men at Wave 1 (1990-91; n = 538) and toward both gay men and lesbians approximately one year later (n = 382 at Wave 2). At Wave 1, heterosexuals reporting interpersonal contact (31.3%) manifested more positive attitudes toward gay men than did those without contact. Their attitudes were more favorable to the extent that they reported more relationships, closer relationships, and receiving direct disclosure about another's homosexuality. At Wave 2, these findings were generally replicated for attitudes toward lesbians as well as gay men. Cross-wave analyses suggest a reciprocal relationship between contact and attitudes. Theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed, with special attention to the role of interpersonal disclosure in reducing stigma based on a concealable status. Psychologists have devoted extensive study to majority-grou p attitudes toward members of stigmatized minority groups. Much research in this area has been guided by the contact hypothesis which, as originally described by Allport (1954), asserts that many forms of prejudice can be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals. A large body of empirical data supports Allport's hypothesis,
Using data from a national probability sample of heterosexual U.S. adults (N = 2,281), the present study describes the distribution and correlates of men’s and women’s attitudes toward transgender people. Feeling thermometer ratings of transgender people were strongly correlated with attitudes toward gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals, but were significantly less favorable. Attitudes toward transgender people were more negative among heterosexual men than women. Negative attitudes were associated with endorsement of a binary conception of gender; higher levels of psychological authoritarianism, political conservatism, and anti-egalitarianism, and (for women) religiosity; and lack of personal contact with sexual minorities. In regression analysis, sexual prejudice accounted for much of the variance in transgender attitudes, but respondent gender, educational level, authoritarianism, anti-egalitarianism, and (for women) religiosity remained significant predictors with sexual prejudice statistically controlled. Implications and directions for future research on attitudes toward transgender people are discussed.
This paper examines the relationship between Hong Kong Chinese people's contact with transgender/transsexual (TG/TS) people and attitudes toward transgenderism and transgender civil rights, based on Allport's Contact Hypothesis. The term transprejudice is introduced to refer to the negative valuing, stereotyping and discriminatory treatment of TG/TS people. Data are presented from a population-based survey with a random sample of 856 Hong Kong Chinese persons aged between 15 and 64, using the Chinese Attitudes towards Transgenderism and Transgender Civil Rights Scale (CATTCRS). Attitudes, assessed on both personal and institutional dimensions, are examined in relation to participants’ gender, age, educational level, religiosity, and previous contact with transpeople. Results suggest that previous contact with transpeople was significantly associated with attitudes reflected in the scale; decreased social distance, decreased social discrimination, and decreased transprejudice, increased awareness of discrimination against transpeople, increased support for equal opportunities, increased support for post-operative transsexual civil rights, and increased support for anti-discrimination legislation. Our findings support the contact hypothesis, that contact has a positive effect on attitudes towards TG/TS persons. We discuss the implications of these findings for public education interventions and public policy, as well as for research.
Five studies on the development and validation of the Attitudes Regarding Bisexuality Scale (ARBS) were conducted. Factor analysis of an initial pool of 80 items yielded 2 factors assessing the degree to which bisexuality is viewed as a tolerable, moral sexual orientation (Tolerance) and a legitimate, stable sexual orientation (Stability). Three forms of the ARBS were created: a form to assess attitudes about female and male bisexuality (i.e., ARBS-FM) and forms to assess attitudes about female bisexuality (i.e, ARBS-F) and male bisexuality (ARBS-M). These forms evidenced moderate-to-high internal consistency reliability in both lesbian and gay samples and heterosexual samples. In heterosexual women and men, subscale were most strongly related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men; frequency of religious attendance; political ideology; and prior contact with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. In lesbians and gay men, subscales correlated with prior experiences with bisexual people, desired contact with bisexual people, contact with homosexual people, and sexual orientation identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We investigated whether simply imagining contact with outgroup members can improve intergroup attitudes. In Experiment 1, young participants who imagined talking to an elderly person subsequently showed lower levels of intergroup bias than participants who imagined an outdoor scene. In Experiment 2, young participants who imagined talking to an elderly person subsequently showed lower levels of intergroup bias than participants who simply thought about elderly people, ruling out a priming explanation for our fi ndings. In Experiment 3, heterosexual men who imagined talking to a homosexual man subsequently evaluated homosexual men more positively, perceived there to be greater variability among them, and experienced less intergroup anxiety compared to a control group. The effect of imagined contact on outgroup evaluations was mediated by reduced intergroup anxiety. These fi ndings suggest that imagining intergroup contact could represent a viable alternative for reducing prejudice where actual contact between groups is impractical.
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of different ways of providing information about transsexualism on attitudes towards transgender persons. Three independent groups were informed about transsexualism in different ways (a formal definition of transsexualism, a vignette with a transgender person story and a YouTube video depicting a transition timeline). Participants who watched the video and those who read the vignette expressed a significant positive change in the affective component of their attitude towards transsexualism, while participants who read the definition demonstrated no change. Differences across groups in the cognitive and behavioural components of students’ attitudes were also confirmed. The results indicate that more personal and detailed methods of providing information about transgender persons could contribute to reducing social transnegativity.
Social categorization processes may be initiated by physical appearance, which have the potential to influence how people evaluate others. Categorizations ground what stereotypes and prejudices, if any, become activated. Gender is one of the first features people notice about others. Much less is known about individuals who may transgress gender expectations, including people who are transgender. Using an experiment, this study investigates whether the attitudes that people have about transgender people and rights are influenced by information and facial images. We hypothesize that mere exposure to transgender people, via information and images of faces, should be a source of prejudice reduction. We randomly provide participants with vignettes defining transgender and also randomize whether these vignettes come with facial images, varying the physical features of gendered individuals. We find our treatments have lower levels of discomfort and transphobia but have little effect on transgender rights attitudes. We further find that the impacts are stronger among Democrats than among Republicans. Our findings support the argument that people are in general unfamiliar with transgender people, and the mere exposure to outgroups can be a source of prejudice reduction.
Contemporary models of sexual identity emphasize variability in " coming out ". To date, little research has examined the potential role of personality and individual differences. In a Canadian community sample of same-sex attracted men (N = 257), greater openness to experience (i.e., openness) and lower religiosity were associated with an earlier age of coming out. Further, openness was associated with an earlier age of coming out over and above childhood gender role, religiosity, and participant age. We also found a 3-way interaction, such that a particularly late age of coming out was found among highly masculine, highly religious men low in openness. Using a dichotomous measure, openness was also lower among those who had not come out (vs. those who were out). Our findings suggest potential barriers to coming out for same-sex attracted men with more conventional and traditional personality traits. Implications for understanding the coming out experience are discussed.
Intergroup contact at the individual level is robustly associated with lower prejudice, but intergroup contact occurs within a greater regional context. Multilevel examinations thus far have focused on interethnic contact, where both individual- and contextual-level contact are associated with lower explicit prejudice. Given that ethnicity is visible, two lingering questions concern whether (a) contextual contact effects only apply to visible outgroups and (b) contextual contact effects predict implicit prejudice in addition to explicit prejudice. In two studies, we tested these questions in the domain of sexual orientation. Individual- and contextual-level contact were simultaneously (uniquely) associated with lower implicit and explicit prejudice: Individuals having more contact with gay men/lesbians were less prejudiced toward gay men and lesbians, and individuals living in areas with greater contact with gay men/lesbians were less prejudiced toward gay men/lesbians. It seems that people need not directly witness intergroup contact in their region for contextual contact effects to occur.
Indices were developed to assess discomfort with specific behavioral violations of gender heteronormative gender roles, gender identity, and sexual orientation. A three-component model that proposes specific threats to social status as mechanisms of gender-based prejudice was then used to assess whether homophobia and transphobia were triggered by the non-gender heteronormative social identity status of the outgroup member or by perceived violations of specific gender heteronormative behaviors. For a sample of 145 female and 194 male gender heteronormative U.S. college undergraduates, path analyses showed that homophobia was particularly associated with discomfort with violations of sexual orientation norms while transphobia was particularly associated with discomfort with violations of gender identity norms. For men and women, discomfort with sexual orientation norms significantly mediated the relationships linking right-wing authoritarianism and benevolent sexism to homophobia while discomfort with violations of gender identity norms significantly mediated the relationships linking right-wing authoritarianism and benevolent sexism to transphobia. Discomfort with sexual orientation norms significantly mediated the relationships between religious fundamentalism and homophobia for men only, while this same discomfort mediated the relationship between benevolent sexism and homophobia for women only. A significant direct path from physical aggression proneness to homophobia was found for men only.
The association between heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men and their interpersonal contact experiences with a lesbian or gay person was examined with data from a national AIDS telephone survey with a probability sample of English-speaking adults in the United States (n = 937). When asked whether any friends or relatives had 'let you know that they were homosexual,' approximately one-third of the respondents gave an affirmative answer. Regression analyses indicated that interpersonal contact predicted attitudes toward gay men better than did any other demographic or social psychological variable included in the equation. Interpersonal contact was more likely to be reported by respondents who were highly educated, politically liberal, young, and female. The data indicate that interpersonal contact is strongly associated with positive attitudes toward gay men and that heterosexuals with characteristics commonly associated with positive attitudes are more likely than others to be the recipients of disclosure from gay friends and relatives.
This paper introduces the ecological theory of gay male identity. The model incorporates both developmental stages and process components in explaining identity formation, and it seeks to identify all psychosocial influences affecting the person, including internal psychological factors and external factors (social and environmental). The ecological theory addresses a number of the criticisms directed at stage models while also providing a psychosocial explanation for why some homosexually-oriented men eventually self-identify as gay. The development of a positive gay identity represents the final achievement in the model. Conceptual definitions for sexual orientation and gay identity are provided, in addition to implications for continuing research and counselling practice.
Transgender people face an uncertain legal climate, and efforts to include gender identity in policies have been met with both successes and failures. These policies are often developed in the legislative process, which directly involve public opinion. To date, there is only one study analyzing American public attitudes toward transgender people. This research gap makes it unclear whether people in general understand what transgender means and whether public support for transgender rights depends on understanding and knowing transgender people. Since the population of transgender people is estimated to be smaller than that of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, examining whether and how having a friend or family member who is lesbian or gay relates to transgender rights is important to understand political coalitions and attitude change. This study examines public attitudes about transgender rights in the USA. It finds that as respondents report being more informed about transgender people they tend to have more supportive attitudes. Interpersonal contact with someone who is lesbian or gay also leads to a secondary transfer of positive attitudes. About half of the secondary transfer effect operates through a mechanism of attitude generalization: contact positively affects the opinions people have on gay rights that then broaden to affect attitudes on transgender rights. Demographic characteristics also indicate that predictors of transgender attitudes are similar to previous studies regarding attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. Further survey efforts need to consider inquiring about transgender rights and attitudes, as this remains a research gap in need of scholarly understanding.
As part of their Many Labs project Klein et al. (2014) replicated the effects of an imagined contact study carried out by Husnu and Crisp (2010). In their report the authors argue the data provides weak support for replicability. However, the effect observed was both significant and comparable to that obtained from a recent meta-analysis for the relevant outgroup. This suggests that the Many Labs project may provide stronger support for the existence of imagined contact effects than currently thought. We discuss the value in interpreting replications within the context of the existing literature.
Although asexuality (i.e., lack of sexual attraction) is receiving increasing public and
academic attention, anti-asexual bias has been the focus of little empirical study. Here,
we develop a measure of anti-asexual bias, the Attitudes Towards Asexuals (ATA)
scale, consisting of a 16-item factor with strong reliability (α = .94). The ATA
demonstrated convergent validity in terms of correlations with individual differences
(e.g., positive relations with Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance
Orientation) and anti-asexual behavioural intentions (e.g., discomfort renting to and
hiring asexuals, contact avoidance). Further, these relations were statistically unique
from singlism (i.e., bias against singles). In addition, we found relations between
greater ATA and greater sexism, greater traditional gender norm endorsement and
lower past intergroup contact with asexuals, suggesting potential avenues for expanding
our understanding of anti-asexual bias. Implications for examining anti-asexual
bias as a distinct form of sexual prejudice are discussed.
Executive Summary Increasing numbers of population-based surveys in the United States and across the world include questions that allow for an estimate of the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This research brief discusses challenges associated with collecting better information about the LGBT community and reviews eleven recent US and international surveys that ask sexual orientation or gender identity questions. The brief concludes with estimates of the size of the LGBT population in the United States. Key findings from the research brief are as follows: An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender. This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey. Among adults who identify as LGB, bisexuals comprise a slight majority (1.8% compared to 1.7% who identify as lesbian or gay). Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual. Bisexuals comprise more than half of the lesbian and bisexual population among women in eight of the nine surveys considered in the brief. Conversely, gay men comprise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men in seven of the nine surveys. Estimates of those who report any lifetime same-sex sexual behavior and any same-sex sexual attraction are substantially higher than estimates of those who identify as LGB. An estimated 19 million Americans (8.2%) report that they have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and nearly 25.6 million Americans (11%) acknowledge at least some same-sex sexual attraction. Understanding the size of the LGBT population is a critical first step to informing a host of public policy and research topics. The surveys highlighted in this report demonstrate the viability of sexual orientation and gender identity questions on large national population-based surveys. Adding these questions to more national, state, and local data sources is critical to developing research that enables a better understanding of the understudied LGBT community.
We investigated whether imagining contact with an out-group member would change behavioral tendencies toward the out-group. In Experiment 1, British high school students who imagined talking to an asylum seeker reported a stronger tendency to approach asylum seekers than did participants in a control condition. Path analysis revealed this relationship was mediated by out-group trust and, marginally, by out-group attitude. In Experiment 2, straight undergraduates who imagined an interaction with a gay individual reported a stronger tendency to approach, and a weaker tendency to avoid, gay people. Path analyses showed that these relationships were mediated by out-group trust, out-group attitude, and less intergroup anxiety. These findings highlight the potential practical importance of imagined contact and important mediators of its effects.
In this chapter, we will provide an extensive review of the sparse literature on the secondary transfer effect. We start our discussion with a brief exposition of Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis, after which we discuss early research on secondary transfer effects and then review more recent research on this topic. Next, we will turn our
attention to the two main purported mediating processes, attitude generalization and deprovincialization, after which we will discuss a third, less tested mediator, intergroup empathy. We then review possible moderators of the link between primary outgroup contact and secondary outgroup attitude as well as the link between primary and secondary outgroup attitudes. Lastly, we turn our attention to some limitations of extant research on the secondary transfer effect, and then suggest some issues for future research in this domain.
The notion that intergroup contact can reduce prejudice is an appealing prospect, one that enjoys considerable support in meta-analytic reviews of both intergroup contact generally (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006) and cross-group friendships specifically (Davies, Tropp, Aron, Pettigrew, & Wright, 2011). As the contributions in the present volume attest, our understanding of the contact phenomenon has grown substantially in recent years. The field has moved beyond merely demonstrating that contact “works,” to exploring how (i.e., the processes by which) it works, in addition to mapping its boundary conditions. More recently, research has moved on from the basic principles involved in direct, face-to-face contact, to propose that more indirect forms of contact can also be effective. During this interval the field has taken advantage of statistical procedures that clarify underlying processes to address our most pressing questions. As noted by Hodson and Hewstone (this volume), this valuable information comes at a critical time in human history, as we experience unprecedented intergroup contact and migration while we deplete our finite resources at an escalating rate, irrevocably changing the planet and biosphere in ways that undoubtedly will put increased pressure on social relations and increase friction between groups. In this final chapter we review the central themes uncovered in this volume, and assess how far the research and theorizing has come before discussing present unknowns and future directions for research.
The time-tested notion that increased contact improves intergroup attitudes, particularly under optimal conditions, is well established. Yet early theorists doubted whether contact could benefit intolerant, prejudice-prone persons. Without tackling the question directly, the contemporary contact field embraces an assumption opposed to that of its predecessors: that contact benefits intolerant individuals, given its general effectiveness. However, other prejudice interventions have failed or backfired among such people. Thus, established contact benefits among people generally may mask the failure of such interventions among intolerant people. I review contemporary evidence and conclude that the contact hypothesis retains its prominence among prejudice-reduction strategies: Intergroup contact and friendships work well (and often best) among intolerant and cognitively rigid persons—by reducing threat and anxiety and increasing empathy, trust, and outgroup closeness. Historically untested assumptions about contact have therefore tested favorably. Future imperatives involve directly addressing contemporary criticisms of contact research.
In discourses about gay, lesbian and bisexual identity, and in the models of sexual identity development that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, coming out is marked as one of the crucial steps in developing a healthy sexual identity. In these discourses, coming out is positioned as `good' as it enables the healthy development of sexual identity, while non-disclosure is positioned as `bad'. As such, there is a disclosure imperative attached to living as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Using empirical evidence gathered from in-depth interviews with 60 Australian bisexual men and women, this article argues that, for bisexuals, the decision about whether to come out is influenced by several factors not often taken into account in sexual identity development models and coming out narratives. These factors make it inherently more difficult to come out to others as bisexual, and significantly challenge the notion of the disclosure imperative.
Two studies investigated intergroup contact with immigrants in Italy. In Study 1 (N = 310 students) contact had direct positive effects on perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude, and a direct negative effect on subtle prejudice; the last two effects were mediated by intergroup anxiety. Contact also had a greater effect on reduced anxiety and improved out-group perception and evaluation when group salience was high. In Study 2 (N = 94 hospital workers) contact at work had direct effects on out-group attitudes and rights for immigrants, and an effect on attitudes toward ethnic coworkers that was mediated by intergroup anxiety at work. The effects of contact were again moderated by group salience. These findings show that the combination of positive contact with individuals from the out-group and group salience is effective in improving intergroup relations, and often does so via reduced anxiety.
The authors explored psychological mechanisms underlying a teaching exercise [Hillman, J., & Martin, R. A. (2002). Lessons about gay and lesbian lives: A spaceship exercise. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 308–311] that may improve attitudes toward homosexuals. Heterosexual participants were randomly assigned to a simulation intervention or control lecture condition. In the simulation condition, participants imagined life on an alien planet that inadvertently simulated situational constraints parallel to those faced by homosexuals. The simulation (vs. control lecture) produced significantly more intergroup perspective-taking, empathy, and favorable attitudes toward homosexuals and marginalized groups. Tests of a structural equation model supported the assumption that the simulation (vs. control) provided an experience that heightened intergroup perspective-taking, which indirectly predicted favorable attitudes via independent cognitive (inclusive intergroup representations) and affective (empathy) paths. The model held after statistically controlling for prior attitudes and ideological individual differences predicting anti-homosexual bias. Implications for prejudice-reduction simulations and intergroup contact are considered.
The association between heterosexuals’ attitudes toward gay men and their interpersonal contact experiences with a lesbian or gay person was examined with data from a national AIDS telephone survey with a probability sample of English‐speaking adults in the United States (n = 937). When asked whether any friends or relatives had “let you know that they were homosexual,” approximately one‐third of the respondents gave an affirmative answer. Regression analyses indicated that interpersonal contact predicted attitudes toward gay men better than did any other demographic or social psychological variable included in the equation. Interpersonal contact was more likely to be reported by respondents who were highly educated, politically liberal, young, and female. The data indicate that interpersonal contact is strongly associated with positive attitudes toward gay men and that heterosexuals with characteristics commonly associated with positive attitudes are more likely than others to be the recipients of disclosure from gay friends and relatives.
It is noted with regard to the submissive personality, it is visualized that this personality structure, observable in early adulthood and better explained by social learning than by psychoanalytic theory, is thought to be developed during adolescence from earlier training in obedience, conventionalism, and aggression, as modified by the individual's subsequent experiences. On the other hand, in context to authoritarian personality, authoritarians harbor many double standards and hypocrisies, without realizing it. This chapter illustrates a part of an investigation of general public opinion concerning a variety of social issues. Adult authoritarians tend to be highly ethnocentric and users of the “consensual validation pill” (Newcomb, 1961). They travel in tight circles of like-minded people, they often think their views are commonly held in society, that they are the “Moral Majority” or the “Silent Majority.” Certain kinds of religious training have sometimes helped produce their ethnocentrism and authoritarianism.
To effectively promote the health and well-being of sexual-minority youths and adults, social scientists must collect and disseminate information that more accurately represents how sexual identity development is actually experienced rather than recollected. Toward this end, I present data from an ongoing longitudinal study of sexual identity development among 89 young sexual-minority women. These women's experiences, tracked in four waves of data collection spanning an 8-year period, highlight several salient "mistakes" we have made in previous conceptualizations of sexual identity development. The first mistake has to do with characteristics of sexual minorities themselves; specifically, it concerns the supposition that most sexual minorities are exclusively attracted to the same sex and that individuals with nonexclusive attractions are "special cases." The second mistake has to do with the process of identity development; specifically, it involves the supposition that sexual questioning (the private reckoning with same-sex attractions that sets the whole process of sexual identity development in motion) is a one-time-only event that is never revisited once an individual settles on a sexual-minority identity. The third mistake has to do with the outcome of identity development; specifically, it concerns the supposition that adopting a lesbian, gay, or bisexual label is the uniform and uniformly healthful outcome of the sexual questioning process. This is not to say that these suppositions are uniformly wrong- certainly, they provide apt descriptions of some sexual minorities, some of the time. The problem is that they have been vastly overgeneralized, precluding investigation of alternative developmental trajectories. I am certainly not the first to argue for more complex and differentiated conceptualizations of sexual identity development (e.g., see Cass, 1990; Golden, 1987), but in this chapter I bring more data to bear on this argument than has previously been possible. Although these data provide a valuable starting point for revising and expanding current conceptualizations of sexual identity development, they have important limitations that must be noted. Most important, this study focuses only on women, leaving open the possibility that traditional sexual identity models are not fundamentally flawed, but rather gender-specific. Although there is some data in support of this possibility (Diamond, 1998; Savin-Williams & Diamond, 2000), there is also growing evidence that conventional sexual identity models oversimplify this process for both genders (Savin-Williams, 1998; Weinberg, Williams, & Pryor, 1994; Whisman, 1996). Future longitudinal research on male sexualminority youths is needed to resolve this issue. Another limitation of the current study is that the respondents are predominantly White and middle class; longitudinal investigation of a more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of sexual minorities is clearly needed to discern how their unique sociocultural contexts shape their long-term identity development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although intergroup contact is generally associated with positive intergroup attitudes, little is known about whether individual differences moderate these relations, or how contact might operate among prejudice-prone individuals. The present investigation explores Person × Contact and Person × Friendship interaction patterns among heterosexual university students. As expected, the positive relations of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and heterosexual identification with prejudice against homosexuals were weakened when participants reported increased contact, more positive contact, direct (personal) friendships, or indirect friendships (i.e., ingroup friends with outgroup friends) with homosexuals. These patterns held after controlling statistically for each person or situation variable. Contact and friendship exerted smaller or negligible effects among low authoritarians or low identifiers. Tests of indirect effects revealed that among high authoritarians or high identifiers, contact and friendship exerted influence on attitudes through group-level perceptions that homosexuals promote societal values and through increased self–other overlap with gay friends, each otherwise resisted by these individuals. Overall these results suggest that: (a) intergroup contact and intergroup friendship are related but distinct constructs; and (b) past findings underestimate contact effects by collapsing across levels of personal biases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Although there is considerable evidence tcirc trans persons are victims of discrimination, social psychologists have rarely explored prejudice against this minority group. We extrapolated from models of heterosexism to test hypotheses about support for and opposition to trans persons' civil rights. Opposition to trans persons civil rights among 151 participants was correlated with heterosexism, authoritarianism, a belief that there are only two sexes, beliefs that gender is biologically based and several demographic variables. Linear regression showed that heterosexism, authoritarianism, contact with sexual minorities and beliefs in biological gender predicted unique variance in opposition to trans persons' civil rights. Differences and similarities between prejudice towards sexual and gender minorities are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.