Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth

In the present work, we investigated the pop cultural idea that people have a sixth sense, called "gaydar," to detect who is gay. We propose that "gaydar" is an alternate label for using stereotypes to infer orientation (e.g., inferring that fashionable men are gay). Another account, however, argues that people possess a facial perception process that enables them to identify sexual orientation from facial structure. 

We report five experiments testing these accounts. Participants made gay-or-straight judgments about fictional targets that were constructed using experimentally manipulated stereotypic cues and real gay/straight people's face cues. These studies revealed that orientation is not visible from the face-purportedly "face-based" gaydar arises from a third-variable confound. People do, however, readily infer orientation from stereotypic attributes (e.g., fashion, career). 

Furthermore, the folk concept of gaydar serves as a legitimizing myth: Compared to a control group, people stereotyped more often when led to believe in gaydar, whereas people stereotyped less when told gaydar is an alternate label for stereotyping. Discussion focuses on the implications of the gaydar myth and why, contrary to some prior claims, stereotyping is highly unlikely to result in accurate judgments about orientation.

Below:  Cropping example. This is a picture of a lab volunteer, cropped like the stimuli used in the present studies. The cropped pictures were placed on a white background larger than is shown in this figure.

Gay-Stereotypic, Stereotype Neutral, and Straight-Stereotypic Statements

Statement	M	SD	Statement	M	SD	Statement	M	SD
Gay-Stereotypic	3.09	(0.387)	Stereotype-Neutral	4.00	(0.055)	Straight-Stereotypic	5.15	(0.240)
He is a hair dresser	2.39	(0.766)	He likes to travel	4.00	(0.338)	He plays football	5.61	(0.934)
He is an interior designer	2.53	(0.774)	He likes children	4.00	(0.487)	He hunts	5.58	(0.937)
He is a Cher fan	2.61	(0.838)	He is outgoing	3.97	(0.654)	He watches Sports Center	5.31	(0.786)
He is fashionable	2.92	(0.732)	He likes spaghetti	3.97	(0.167)	He drives a pick-up truck	5.31	(0.889)
He likes going to the mall	2.93	(0.997)	He likes animals	3.97	(0.506)	He watches NASCAR	5.31	(1.009)
He likes musical theater	3.03	(0.654)	He has two siblings	3.97	(0.167)	He does not care about fashion	5.11	(0.747)
He likes shopping	3.06	(0.791)	He likes listening to music	3.97	(0.291)	He is a firefighter	5.06	(0.924)
He has a stylish home	3.08	(0.841)	He has a good sense of humor	4.03	(0.291)	He is a rapper	5.06	(0.984)
He does not like sports	3.31	(0.668)	He has an accent	4.03	(0.506)	He is a police officer	4.97	(0.845)
He is a nurse	3.39	(0.599)	He likes to drink alcohol	4.06	(0.232)	He likes cars	4.97	(0.845)
He spends his time working for equal rights	3.44	(0.652)	He likes watching movies	3.94	(0.333)	He rides a motorcycle	4.97	(0.774)
He likes to be well dressed	3.5	(0.609)	He likes to read	3.94	(0.232)	He is good at sports	4.97	(1.000)
He likes dancing	3.53	(0.654)	He likes to go jogging	3.94	(0.410)	He likes to play basketball for fun	4.94	(0.954)
He likes to be well groomed	3.58	(0.604)	He is active	4.14	(0.424)	He is a Republican	4.86	(1.089)
−1.16 ≤ skews ≤ 0.13			−4.05 ≤ skews ≤ 4.05			−0.37 ≤ skews ≤ 0.68
−1.37 ≤ kurtoses ≤ 0.56			−1.85 ≤ kurtoses ≤ 15.26			−1.37 ≤ kurtoses ≤ 0.56
t (13) = −8.751, p < 0.001			t (13) = −0.337, p = 0.741			t (13) = 17.854, p < 0.001

Note. Descriptive statistics from the pretesting of the selected stimulus statements. Ratings were on a scale from 1 (very gay) to 7 (very straight). To verify our selections, the one-sample t-tests compared the set of statements to the scale midpoint, 4 (neither gay nor straight).

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/mRXJEr

By:  Cox WT1, Devine PG1, Bischmann AA1, Hyde JS1.

• 1 Department of Psychology , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , Wisconsin , USA.
• J Sex Res. 2016 Feb;53(2):157-71. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2015.1015714. Epub 2015 Jul 28. 

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Intersecting Race and Gender Cues are Associated with Perceptions of Gay Men's Preferred Sexual Roles

Preferences for anal sex roles (top/bottom) are an important aspect of gay male identity, but scholars have only recently begun to explore the factors that covary with these preferences. Here, we argue that the gendered nature of both racial stereotypes (i.e., Black men are masculine, Asian men are feminine) and sexual role stereotypes (i.e., tops are masculine, bottoms are feminine) link the categories Asian/bottom and the categories Black/top. 

We provide empirical evidence for these claims at three levels of analysis: At the cultural level based upon gay men's stereotypic beliefs about others (Study 1), at the interpersonal level based upon gay men's perceptions of others' sexual role preferences (Study 2), and at the intrapersonal level based upon racially diverse men's self-reported sexual roles on a public hookup website (Study 3). 

These studies offer the first systematic evidence of linkages between race categories and sexual roles in gay male communities.

Via: http://goo.gl/OMbsbl  Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/zhztG8

By: Lick DJ1, Johnson KL.

• 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1563, USA, david.lick@ucla.edu.

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Self-Perceived vs. Actual Physical Attractiveness: Associations with Depression as a Function of Sexual Orientation

A commonly held belief about physical attractiveness is that attractive individuals are psychologically healthier than less attractive individuals (i.e., the "beauty is good" stereotype). To date, the data on this stereotype and its relationship with depression is limited, with a paucity of literature comparing subjective and objective appearance evaluations and depressive symptoms. 

Additionally, there is no known research on this relationship among sexual minorities (i.e., gay and bisexual individuals), a highly vulnerable population. The primary aims of the study were to assess the prediction of depression symptoms by subjective and objective appearance evaluation, and secondary aims were to assess the interaction of subjective and objective appearance with sexual orientation.

Participants were 4,882 American emerging adults (M age=22 years; 2,253 males, 2,629 females) taken from a U.S. nationally representative dataset (Add Health) 

• Increased negative subjective appearance evaluation was associated with elevated rates of depressive symptoms, 
• while objective appearance evaluation was not significantly related to depressive symptoms. 
• Sexual orientation significantly moderated the relationship between subjective appearance and depression, with a stronger positive association between negative appearance evaluation and depressive symptoms noted among sexual minority vs. heterosexual participants.

Findings suggest that the 'beauty is good' stereotype may not be valid in regard to depressive symptoms, and that subjective appearance evaluation is a robust predictor of depression, particularly for sexual minority individuals.

Via:  http://ht.ly/SHVMg   Purchase full article at:  http://ht.ly/SHVTF 

By: Ehlinger PP1, Blashill AJ2.

• 1Massachusetts General Hospital, USA.
• 2San Diego State University, USA; SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, USA.

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Race-Based Sexual Stereotypes and Their Effects on Sexual Risk Behavior in Racially Diverse Young Men Who Have Sex with Men

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. The epidemic is not evenly distributed across MSM, and young racial minority MSM experience the highest rate of new infections. Race-based sexual stereotyping is not uncommon among MSM, and it may contribute to the isolation of racial minority sexual networks, which has been found to contribute to increased HIV incidence in Black MSM. 

The goals of these analyses were to describe the race-based sexual preferences and stereotypes of racially diverse young MSM (YMSM), and to examine whether endorsement of sexual stereotypes was associated with sexual risk behavior when having sex with partners of the stereotyped race. Data were taken from Crew 450, an ongoing longitudinal study of a syndemic of psychosocial health issues linked to HIV among YMSM in Chicago and surrounding areas. Analyses utilized data from three study waves, and longitudinal analyses were conducted with Hierarchical Linear Modeling. 

YMSM generally endorsed same-race preferences for sexual partners. Black partners were rated highest in displaying stereotypically dominant characteristics and in likelihood of taking the top/insertive sex role, while Latino partners were rated the highest in likelihood of sex being hot and passionate. White partners were rated lowest on each of these domains. 

Longitudinal analyses found that endorsement of these stereotypes had important implications for the rate of condomless receptive and insertive anal sex with racial minority partners. Findings suggest that sexual stereotypes may contribute to the isolation of racial minority sexual networks.

Via: http://ht.ly/RAHP8 HT https://twitter.com/NUFeinbergMed