Gender oriented
John Bailey, Michael Wallace & Bradley Wright
Journal of Homosexuality, June 2013, Pages 873-894
Abstract:
An Internet-based field experiment was conducted to examine potential hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation; specifically, the "first contact" between job applicants and employers was looked at. In response to Internet job postings on CareerBuilder.com®, more than 4,600 resumes were sent to employers in 4 U.S. cities: Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco. The resumes varied randomly with regard to gender, implied sexual orientation, and other characteristics. Two hypotheses were tested: first, that employers' response rates vary by the applicants' assumed sexuality; and second, that employers' Response Rates by Sexuality vary by city. Effects of city were controlled for to hold constant any variation in labor market conditions in the 4 cities. Based on employer responses to the applications, it was concluded that there is no evidence that gay men or lesbians are discriminated against in their first encounter with employers, and no significant variation across cities in these encounters was found. Implications of these results for the literature on hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation, the strengths and limitations of the research, and the potential for the Internet-based field experiment design in future studies of discrimination are discussed.
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Are Black Neighborhoods Less Welcoming to Homosexuals than White Neighborhoods?
David Christafore, Sebastian Leguizamon & Susane Leguizamon
Regional Science and Urban Economics, July 2013, Pages 579-589
Abstract:
Analysts of survey data suggest that blacks are less approving of homosexuality than whites. We empirically test this hypothesis by analyzing the influence of homosexuals on house prices in neighborhoods with varying concentrations of black residents. We find that an additional homosexual couple is associated with a decrease in house prices in predominantly black neighborhoods, but an increase in house prices in predominantly white neighborhoods. Although this association is present for neighborhoods with extremely high concentrations of blacks, the net effect is positive for most neighborhood compositions.
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Do ENDAs End Discrimination for Behaviorally Gay Men?
Michael Martell
Journal of Labor Research, June 2013, Pages 147-169
Abstract:
Twenty-two states have implemented state Employment Nondiscrimination Acts (ENDAs) making sexual orientation discrimination illegal, and Congress has repeatedly considered a federal ENDA. However, we know very little about the impact of existing ENDAs and the likely impact of future ENDAs. I describe the implementation of ENDAs and highlight their shortcomings relative to federal employment nondiscrimination law. Despite their shortcomings, I show that state ENDAs decrease wage differentials by roughly 20 % for behaviorally gay men. ENDAs appear to reduce this wage differential by reducing the portion of wage differentials typically associated with discrimination. These results inform a contemporary policy debate over the necessity and impact of expanded protection from discrimination for gay men.
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Women Seek More Variety in Rewards When Closer to Ovulation
Ali Faraji-Rad, Mehrad Moeini-Jazani & Luk Warlop
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We propose that women's increased generalized sensitivity to rewards during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle causes them to seek more variety in rewards when they are in the fertile phase than when they are not in the fertile phase of the cycle. In Studies 1-3, across the reward domains of mating and hedonic food, we show that women seek more variety in rewards when closer to ovulation. Moreover, we provide support for the proposition that women's increased reward sensitivity during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle causes their greater variety seeking. Specifically, in Study 3, we show that fertile women's greater variety seeking does not extend to non-rewards, such as non-hedonic food. Our findings suggest that behavioral effects of women's hormonal shifts during the menstrual cycle are not limited to the mating domain and may extend to a wide category of reward domains.
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Jon Maner et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current research sheds light on a physiological mechanism potentially underlying confrontational responses to infidelity. Findings suggest that responses to infidelity threats in adulthood are shaped by hormonally mediated masculinization of the brain in utero. 2D:4D digit ratio (widely regarded as an index of prenatal testosterone exposure) moderated behavioral and endocrinological responses to infidelity threat. After an infidelity prime (but not a control prime), lower (more masculine) 2D:4D was associated with a greater tendency to approach attractive same-sex targets (intrasexual rivals) and with heightened increases in circulating testosterone, a hormone related to a variety of aggressive and confrontational behaviors.
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Adriene Beltz & Sheri Berenbaum
Hormones and Behavior, May 2013, Pages 823-828
Abstract:
There is considerable interest in the organizational effects of pubertal sex hormones on human sex-related characteristics. Recent evidence from rodents suggests that there is a decreasing window of sensitivity to sex hormones throughout adolescence. If adolescence also represents a period of brain organization in human beings, then the timing of exposure to sex-typical hormones at puberty should have long-term effects on sex-typed characteristics: individuals with early timing should be more sex-typed than individuals with late timing. We tested this hypothesis in 320 young adults by relating their pubertal timing (retrospective comparison to peers) to cognitive abilities that show sex differences. Results provide partial support for the hypothesis. For men, pubertal timing was inversely related to scores on a test of three-dimensional mental rotations. Effects do not appear to be due to duration of hormone exposure (time since puberty), but other potential influences need further study.
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Born both ways: The alloparenting hypothesis for sexual fluidity in women
Barry Kuhle & Sarah Radtke
Evolutionary Psychology, April 2013, Pages 304-323
Abstract:
Given the primacy of reproduction, same-sex sexual behavior poses an evolutionary puzzle. Why would selection fashion motivational mechanisms to engage in sexual behaviors with members of the same sex? We propose the alloparenting hypothesis, which posits that sexual fluidity in women is a contingent adaptation that increased ancestral women's ability to form pair bonds with female alloparents who helped them rear children to reproductive age. Ancestral women recurrently faced the adaptive problems of securing resources and care for their offspring, but were frequently confronted with either a dearth of paternal resources due to their mates' death, an absence of paternal investment due to rape, or a divestment of paternal resources due to their mates' extra-pair mating efforts. A fluid sexuality would have helped ancestral women secure resources and care for their offspring by promoting the acquisition of allomothering investment from unrelated women. Under this view, most heterosexual women are born with the capacity to form romantic bonds with both sexes. Sexual fluidity is a conditional reproductive strategy with pursuit of men as the default strategy and same-sex sexual responsiveness triggered when inadequate paternal investment occurs or when women with alloparenting capabilities are encountered. Discussion focuses on (a) evidence for alloparenting and sexual fluidity in humans and other primates; (b) alternative explanations for sexual fluidity in women; and(c) fourteen circumstances predicted to promote same-sex sexual behavior in women.
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Induced disgust affects implicit and explicit responses toward gay men and lesbians
Emily Cunningham, Catherine Forestell & Cheryl Dickter
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the current study, disgust was induced using a carefully controlled odor manipulation to observe its effect on participants' implicit and explicit responses to homosexuals. Participants were presented with a vial containing an odor that was described as "body odor" (n = 47) that induced a high level of disgust, or "parmesan cheese" (n = 43) that induced a moderate level of disgust, or an odor-free vial (n = 53). Subsequently, participants viewed images of homosexual and heterosexual couples, and their viewing times and ratings of the images' pleasantness were recorded. Additionally, they completed a "feelings thermometer" task, the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale that assessed feelings toward homosexuals, and the Three-Domain Disgust Scale to measure sensitivity along three dimensions of disgust (pathogen, moral, and sexual). Results indicated that those in the body odor condition viewed images of gay (but not lesbian) couples for less time relative to images of heterosexual couples compared with participants in the other two conditions. With respect to explicit ratings, participants in the body odor condition reported colder feelings for gay relative to heterosexual men on the feelings thermometer compared with those in the no-odor control condition. For pleasantness ratings, the odor manipulation served as a moderator, such that for those in the body odor condition only, higher sensitivity to sexual disgust predicted lower ratings for images of lesbian couples relative to straight couples. Thus, although induction of disgust biases implicit and explicit responses to gay couples, the degree to which this occurs for explicit ratings of lesbian couples depends on levels of sexual disgust.
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Competitors who choose to be red have higher testosterone levels
Daniel Farrelly et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
"Seventy-three naïve males participated in a lab-based experiment. Participants were told that they would perform a competitive task and their performance would relate to their positioning on a leaderboard...Participants then chose a username and symbol color to represent them on the leaderboard...Saliva samples were taken before presenting any details of the study (in terms of color choice or competition) and again 15 minutes after completing the task (allowing for changes in testosterone due to competition to be detected)...[I]ndividuals who chose red had higher testosterone levels, and rated their color as having higher levels of characteristics such as dominance and aggression, than those that chose blue...Those choosing red did not, however, perform better in the competitive task."
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Right-Wing Authoritarianism Predicts Prejudice Against "Homosexuals" but Not "Gay Men and Lesbians"
Kimberly Rios
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Can different social category labels for a single group be associated with different levels of prejudice - specifically, sexual prejudice? Some theorizing, and a pilot study in the present research, suggests that the label "homosexuals" carries more deviance-related connotations than does the label "gay men and lesbians." Given that right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) correlates positively with prejudice against groups stereotyped as deviant, it was hypothesized that RWA would predict greater prejudice against "homosexuals" than "gay men and lesbians" among heterosexual participants. Two studies supported this hypothesis and demonstrated that the effect was driven by both perceived threats to heterosexuals' values (i.e., symbolic threat; Study 1) and perceived fundamental differences between "homosexuals" and heterosexuals as social categories (i.e., psychological essentialism; Study 2). Implications for the factors that predict social categorization of and prejudice toward sexual minorities are discussed.
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The opposite of backlash: High-SDO people show enhanced tolerance when gay people pose little threat
Angela Bahns & Christian Crandall
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested how perceived threat to group position affects the relationship between beliefs about the acceptability of social inequality - as measured by social dominance orientation (SDO) - and discrimination. We hypothesized that high-SDO heterosexuals would respond with increased discrimination when they perceived status gains for gays. In a pilot study, we found that SDO correlated with gay prejudice and with perceiving gays to be gaining status. In an experiment, we manipulated the perceived status of gays and measured SDO, traditional values, and money donated to anti-gay causes. SDO was correlated with more anti-gay donations, except when gays were perceived to be low in status; then people high in SDO discriminated less, making fewer anti-gay donations in the Low compared to the Gain and Control status conditions. By contrast, traditional values were correlated with more anti-gay donations in all conditions, and the correlation was especially strong in the Low status condition.
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Leslie Burton, Elan Guterman & Graham Baum
Current Psychology, June 2013, Pages 197-202
Abstract:
One hundred seven university community participants (71 female, 36 male) were evaluated on the five personality factors (NEO-FFI), and finger lengths were measured to determine the ratio of the second to fourth digit (2D:4D). It is well-established that 2D:4D ratios are an index of prenatal androgenic activity. Sex differences were found such that the men had lower 2D:4D ratios than the women for both the left and right hands, and the women indicated greater Neuroticism than the men, as reported by others. Most interestingly, greater Openness was significantly associated with more female-typical (higher) 2D:4D ratios for the entire sample. This was significant for the male sample alone, and was found at a trend level in the female sample alone.
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Gender, Religiosity, Spirituality, and Attitudes toward Homosexuality
Mandi Nicole Barringer, David Gay & John Lynxwiler
Sociological Spectrum, May/June 2013, Pages 240-257
Abstract:
This article investigates the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, gender, and attitudes toward homosexuality. The article augments the existing literature by examining the effects of religious affiliation, religiosity, and spirituality on attitudes toward homosexuality separately for men and women using the 2008 and 2010 General Social Surveys. Results indicate significant gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuality for two variables. Southern residence decreases tolerance among men, but not women. Also, men who self-identify as spiritual, but not religious, are more likely to report that homosexuality is not morally wrong than their more religious counterparts; however, a similar finding was not evident among the women who self-identified as spiritual.