Every which way
The Personal Politics of Same-Sex Marriage
Craig Burnett & Aaron King
Politics & Policy, August 2015, Pages 586-610
Abstract:
Research on attitudes toward gay people and same-sex marriage finds that individuals who know a gay person in their immediate personal network are not only more likely to view gay people positively but also support same-sex marriage. Here we examine whether this result extends to an individual's stance toward specific ballot measures regarding same-sex marriage across different social and political climates ranging from the conservative South to the liberal Pacific Northwest. Using survey data collected in three states that considered banning or approving same-sex marriage during the 2012 election cycle, we analyze the hypothesis that a personal relationship with a gay person affects an individual's vote choice on a ballot measure with actual policy consequences. In the end, we find mixed results across the three states. Our results suggest the importance of state-level variation in the social climate that may temper the effect of contact.
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The Social Context of Sexual Identity
Elizabeth Aura McClintock
University of Notre Dame Working Paper, August 2015
Abstract:
Prior research documents greater longitudinal change in sexual identity and higher rates of non-heterosexuality and among women than among men, particularly, higher rates of bisexual and "heteroflexible" identities. Yet researchers have not considered the social structure of sexual identity, or gender differences in the importance of social context and experience for sexual identity. I argue that female sexual flexibility implies context-dependent and experience-dependent sexual identities; if men's sexual attractions are less flexible, context and experience would have little relevance for men's sexual identities. Using data from Add Health, a large, nationally-representative probability sample, I find that both contextual and personal characteristics - such as higher educational attainment, socioeconomic background, timing of childbearing, and race - are associated with women's sexual identity and with longitudinal change in women's sexual identity. These patterns are very different for men, for whom social context has less relevance to sexual identity.
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The Difference One Word Makes: Imagining Sexual Orientation in Graduate School Application Essays
Kamden Strunk & Lucy Bailey
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past researchers in implicit racial bias have illuminated how changes of even a single word in such writing samples as job applications and syllabi can shape perceptions and behavior. In the present study, a multistaged experiment was undertaken to expand the work in implicit racial bias by using a similar research design focused on sexual orientation. We attempted to elicit sexual orientation identification via 1-word changes (wife, partner, or husband to refer to significant other) in graduate school admission essays and investigated differences in participants' ratings of those essays on a number of relevant dimensions. Results indicate that essays referring to a partner or husband were perceived as more feminine/less masculine and more gay/less straight versus those referring to a wife. We also found that the essays mentioning the partner or husband were rated as being a poorer "fit" to the university versus those referring to a wife. These results have implications for research, as this introduces a useful research paradigm for LGBTQ work, and for practice as it highlights the ways that single-word variations can elicit sexual subjectivities and impact subsequent decisions about admissions and fit.
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Dafni Hellstrand & Elisavet Chrysochoou
Evolutionary Psychology, September 2015
Abstract:
Existing evidence suggests that the psychological design of romantic jealousy differs for men and women: Men are more likely than women to report greater upset in response to a partner's sexual than emotional infidelity, whereas women are more likely than men to report greater upset in response to a partner's emotional than sexual infidelity. However, the observed sex difference can be explained after the fact by both an evolutionary analysis of past reproductive costs and a social constructionist analysis of social and gender role training. Attempting to disentangle these competing perspectives, researchers have measured participants' upset in response to a sibling's or a child's partner's infidelities. In contrast to what a socialization perspective would predict, participants' sex did not seem to affect their responses; the key variable was the sex of the sibling or the child, in line with a heuristic application of the evolutionary perspective. The present study attempted not only to test these competing hypotheses but also to extend previous work by involving participants with a gay or lesbian sibling and examining whether participants' responses are triggered by their sibling's or sibling's partner's sex. In line with an evolutionary perspective, participants' sex did not assert an effect on their responses. The key variable seemed to be the sex of the sibling (rather than the sex of the sibling's partner), with participants reporting greater levels of upset in response to the sexual than emotional infidelity of a gay brother's partner and to the emotional than sexual infidelity of a lesbian sister's partner. The ensuing discussion offers suggestions for future work on sex-specific triggers of jealousy.
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Power and Sadomasochism: Understanding the Antecedents of a Knotty Relationship
Joris Lammers & Roland Imhoff
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A large sample of 14,306 men and women was used to examine the relationship between social power and sexual arousal to consensual sadomasochism. Results showed that power increases the arousal to sadomasochism, after controlling for age and dominance. Furthermore, the effect of power on arousal by sadistic thoughts is stronger among women than among men, while the effect of power on arousal by masochistic thoughts is stronger among men than women. These findings refute common beliefs, reinforced through novels such as Fifty Shades of Grey, that the desire for sadomasochism reflects a desire to play out power dynamics in the bedroom. Instead, the effect of power is driven through a process of disinhibition that leads people to disregard sexual norms in general and disregard sexual norms associated with their gender in particular. These results add to an emerging literature that social power changes traditional gender patterns in sex.
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Differences in Health Risk Behaviors Across Understudied LGBT Subgroups
Bryant Smalley, Jacob Warren & Nikki Barefoot
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: The purpose of the current study was to conduct a large-scale, geographically diverse comparison of health risk behaviors between a broad range of sexual orientation and gender identity groups to more fully understand the health risks of subgroups within the LGBT community.
Method: A total of 3,279 individuals self-identifying as LGBT (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, genderqueer, and/or another gender or sexual minority) were recruited from across the United States through 2 sequentially implemented online recruitment methods. Participants completed a demographic assessment and the Health Risk Questionnaire (assessing diet and exercise, substance use and smoking, motor vehicle risks, sexual behaviors, violence, and medical risk-taking).
Results: Significant differences were found across genders for 18 of the 28 health risk behaviors investigated and across sexual orientations for 23 behaviors. Major differences emerged particularly with relation to diet and exercise behaviors, as well as sexual risk-taking, substance use, and medical risk-taking. Groups with notably elevated health risk behaviors included transgender women (diet and exercise behaviors), cisgender men (alcohol-related risk-taking), bisexual participants (substance use), and both transgender men and pansexual participants (self-harm). Differences between transgender participants and genderqueer or nonbinary participants were stark, indicating that these frequently combined groups have distinct health risk profiles.
Conclusions: Results suggest that there are extensive and largely variable levels of engagement in health risk behaviors within the LGBT community. In addition, gender and sexual orientation subcategories that are traditionally collapsed into 1 category (i.e., transgender and bisexual) evidenced strikingly different risks when examined independently. Recommendations for future research and LGBT health promotion efforts are discussed.
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Lisa Miller & Eric Anthony Grollman
Sociological Forum, September 2015, Pages 809-831
Abstract:
Research suggests that transgender people face high levels of discrimination in society, which may contribute to their disproportionate risk for poor health. However, little is known about whether gender nonconformity, as a visible marker of one's stigmatized status as a transgender individual, heightens trans people's experiences with discrimination and, in turn, their health. Using data from the largest survey of transgender adults in the United States, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (N = 4,115), we examine the associations among gender nonconformity, transphobic discrimination, and health-harming behaviors (i.e., attempted suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, and smoking). The results suggest that gender nonconforming trans people face more discrimination and, in turn, are more likely to engage in health-harming behaviors than trans people who are gender conforming. Our findings highlight the important role of gender nonconformity in the social experiences and well-being of transgender people.
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The impact of prenatal testosterone on female interest in slash fiction
Catherine Salmon
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, July 2015, Pages 161-169
Abstract:
This study examines the possible connection between prenatal levels of testosterone and adult female interest in erotica, in particular, the genre known as slash fiction. Slash stories focus on the romantic and sexual relationships between (generally) heterosexual males, fictional characters from TV and film, such as Star Trek's Kirk and Spock or Sherlock's Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Salmon and Symons (2001, 2004) suggested that higher than average levels of prenatal testosterone exposure might predispose women to prefer this type of fiction. This study attempts to use the sexually dimorphic finger ratio, 2D:4D, as an indicator of prenatal testosterone exposure, comparing the 2D:4D ratios of slash readers to those of nonreaders. Female slash readers had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios than females who were not readers of slash fiction, indicating higher prenatal testosterone exposure, thereby supporting the hypothesis that prenatal testosterone exposure may influence individual differences in preferences for erotic literature.
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Reducing Heterosexuals' Prejudice Toward Gay Men and Lesbian Women via an Induced Cross-Orientation Friendship
Ashley Lytle & Sheri Levy
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is limited correlational research on whether cross-orientation friendships reduce heterosexuals' sexual prejudice, and no existing experimental studies on the impact of simulated cross-orientation friendships on attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. The current study involved a novel and experimental examination of whether simulated cross-orientation friendships would reduce sexual prejudice. College student participants (White heterosexual) completed an experimental-manipulated closeness exercise (the fast friends procedure; Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone, & Bator, 1997) with a confederate (matched to participants' gender). Participants were randomly assigned to undergo the fast friends procedure with a confederate who either did not reveal his or her sexual orientation (control condition) or revealed being gay or lesbian at the beginning (reveal-beginning condition) or end of the interaction (reveal-end condition). As predicted, participants in both experimental conditions relative to those in a control condition reported significantly improved attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women (pre- to postexperiment), greater feelings of interpersonal closeness, and more positive behavior (longer and friendlier responses following disclosure of sexual orientation). The experimental conditions did not differ from each other. Implications of these findings are discussed.