Sexual Orientation
David Christafore & Susane Leguizamon
Journal of Urban Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Gays and lesbians perceive themselves to be targets of discrimination in the housing market. Previous research has found that the presence of gays and lesbians is associated with increased housing values. We reconcile the perceived discrimination and research results by classifying neighborhoods as more conservative or liberal according to voting outcomes of the "Defense of Marriage Act". Using a data set comprised of over 20,000 house sale observations, we show that an increase in the number of same-sex coupled households is associated with an increase in house prices in more liberal neighborhoods and a decrease in house prices in more conservative neighborhoods. This suggests that gay and lesbian coupled households do experience prejudice in conservative neighborhoods.
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Maternal tendencies in women are associated with estrogen levels and facial femininity
Miriam Law Smith et al.
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous studies have shown that women with higher maternal tendencies are shorter and have lower testosterone levels than those with lower maternal tendencies. Here we report two studies that investigated the relationships between maternal tendencies and two further measures of physical masculinization/feminization; urinary estrogen metabolite (estrone-3-glucuronide: E1-3G) levels (Study 1) and rated facial femininity (Study 2). In Study 1, nulliparous women reported both their ideal number of children and ideal own age at first child and also provided urine samples. There was a significant positive correlation between measured late-follicular estrogen levels and reported ideal number of children. In Study 2, analyses of facial cues in two independent samples of women showed that the average facial characteristics of women who reported desiring many children were rated as more feminine than those desiring fewer children. Collectively, these results support the proposal that maternal tendencies are related to physical feminization and that this effect may, at least in part, reflect the influence of the hormone estrogen.
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Pride and Prejudice: Employment Discrimination against Openly Gay Men in the United States
András Tilcsik
American Journal of Sociology, September 2011, Pages 586-626
Abstract:
This article presents the first large-scale audit study of discrimination against openly gay men in the United States. Pairs of fictitious résumés were sent in response to 1,769 job postings in seven states. One résumé in each pair was randomly assigned experience in a gay campus organization, and the other résumé was assigned a control organization. Two main findings have emerged. First, in some but not all states, there was significant discrimination against the fictitious applicants who appeared to be gay. This geographic variation in the level of discrimination appears to reflect regional differences in attitudes and antidiscrimination laws. Second, employers who emphasized the importance of stereotypically male heterosexual traits were particularly likely to discriminate against openly gay men. Beyond these particular findings, this study advances the audit literature more generally by covering multiple regions and by highlighting how audit techniques may be used to identify stereotypes that affect employment decisions in real labor markets.
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Daniella Shidlovski & Ran Hassin
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this report, we argue that the intensity of the emotions people experience is partly determined by the goals they nonconsciously pursue, and that this effect is functional in nature: Emotions are modulated in ways that may increase the probability of goal achievement. To test this hypothesis, we primed female participants with a motherhood goal and then measured their level of disgust in response to mildly disgusting pictures. Priming led to a reduction of disgust in response to goal-relevant stimuli (e.g., pictures of babies with runny noses) but not goal-irrelevant stimuli. This effect was moderated by the women's probability of conception, a proxy of their ability to pursue the motherhood goal.
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Anne Krendl et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, October 2011, Pages 2538-2550
Abstract:
Emerging research suggests that the cues we glean from first impressions depend on our goals. This research uses sorority recruitment to examine whether groups that vary in social status rely on disparate cues to form first impressions of potential new group members. Current sorority members were given 500 ms to view pictures of women who wanted to join their sororities, and were then asked how likely it was that each prospective member would receive a bid from their sorority (bid expectancy). Prospective members were also rated on their attractiveness. Data were analyzed separately for high- vs. low-status houses. Results revealed that attractiveness was more predictive of liking and bid expectancy for the high-status houses, as compared to the low-status houses.
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The Conspiracy of Silence: Context and Voting on Gay Marriage Ballot Measures
Joshua Dyck & Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz
Political Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Gay marriage bans have received widespread support in the past decade in states across America. The authors evaluate the extent to which context mitigates or exacerbates support for gay rights. Their question is grounded in the debate over whether exposure to out-groups creates acceptance through contact or whether exposure induces hostility through threat. Using data from twelve marriage ban elections, the authors find conditional support for the threat hypothesis. While the presence of a gay population is unimportant to the majority of the population, evangelical Christians who live proximate to larger gay populations are more likely to support bans on gay marriage.
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Male more than female infants imitate propulsive motion
Joyce Benenson, Robert Tennyson & Richard Wrangham
Cognition, November 2011, Pages 262-267
Abstract:
Few experimental studies investigate the mechanisms by which young children develop sex-typed activity preferences. Gender self-labeling followed by selective imitation of same-sex models currently is considered a primary socialization mechanism. Research with prenatally androgenized girls and non-human primates also suggests an innate male preference for activities that involve propulsive movement. Here we show that before children can label themselves by gender, 6- to 9-month-old male infants are more likely than female infants to imitate propulsive movements. Further, male infants' increase in propulsive movement was linearly related to proportion of time viewing a male model's propulsive movements. We propose that male sex-typed behavior develops from socialization mechanisms that build on a male predisposition to imitate propulsive motion.
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Baby cries and nurturance affect testosterone in men
Sari van Anders, Richard Tolman & Brenda Volling
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Testosterone (T) is generally theorized within a trade-off framework that contrasts parenting and low T with competitive challenges and high T. Paradoxically, baby cues increase T, prompting questions of whether T or its behavioral expression has been mischaracterized. We tested 55 men using a novel interactive infant doll paradigm, and results supported our hypotheses: We showed for the first time that baby cries do decrease T in men, but only when coupled with nurturant responses. In contrast, baby cries uncoupled with nurturant response increased T. These findings highlight the need to partition infant cues and interactions into nurturant versus competitive-related contexts to more accurately conceptualize T, as per the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds. This experiment also supports the utility of this paradigm for studying effects of infant interactions on hormonal responses, which may provide critical insights into ameliorating the darker sides of caregiving (e.g. anger, frustration, violence) and enhancing the positive sides (e.g. intimacy, nurturance, reward).
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Gender and Physiological Effects in Connecting Disgust to Political Preferences
Amanda Balzer & Carly Jacobs
Social Science Quarterly, December 2011, Pages 1297-1313
Objectives: Sensitivity to disgust predicts social attitudes, but this relationship can shift depending on gender and whether response to disgust is measured through surveys or physiological tests. We are interested in exploring the relationship between gender, political preferences, and different measures of disgust.
Methods: We systematically evaluate these interrelationships by comparing self-reported disgust sensitivity and changes in skin conductance while viewing disgusting images, accounting for gender and attitudes toward gay marriage.
Results: We find that although there is no physiological difference between genders, opponents of gay marriage conform to gender-role expectations in self-reports, with women reporting higher levels of disgust than males. For males, physiological response better predicts attitudes on gay marriage because there are physiological, but not self-reported, differences between supporters and opponents. Self-report and physiology both predict gay marriage attitudes for females.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that combining traditional survey and physiological measures provides leverage in exploring questions related to social behaviors and their origins.
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Stability and Change in Sexual Orientation Identity Over a 10-Year Period in Adulthood
Steven Mock & Richard Eibach
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined reports of sexual orientation identity stability and change over a 10-year period drawing on data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS I and II) and tested for three patterns: (1) heterosexual stability, (2) female sexual fluidity, and (3) bisexual fluidity. Fifty-four percent of the 2,560 participants were female and the average age was approximately 47 years. At Wave 1, 2,494 (97.42%) reported a heterosexual identity, 32 (1.25%) a homosexual identity, and 34 (1.33%) a bisexual identity and somewhat more than 2% reported a different sexual orientation identity at Wave 2. Although some support for each hypothesis was found, initial sexual orientation identity interacted with gender to predict a more complex pattern. For the sample as a whole, heterosexuality was the most stable identity. For women, bisexuality and homosexuality were equally unstable and significantly less stable than heterosexuality, suggesting that sexual orientation identity fluidity is a pattern that applies more to sexual minority women than heterosexual women. For men, heterosexuality and homosexuality were both relatively stable compared to bisexuality, which stood out as a particularly unstable identity. This pattern of results was consistent with previous findings and helps to address methodological limitations of earlier research by showing the characteristics of a population-based sample of heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual identified men and women over time.
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Klára Marečková et al.
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Sex identification of a face is essential for social cognition. Still, perceptual cues indicating the sex of a face, and mechanisms underlying their development, remain poorly understood. Previously, our group described objective age- and sex-related differences in faces of healthy male and female adolescents (12-18 years of age), as derived from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the adolescents' heads. In this study, we presented these adolescent faces to 60 female raters to determine which facial features most reliably predicted subjective sex identification. Identification accuracy correlated highly with specific MRI-derived facial features (e.g. broader forehead, chin, jaw, and nose). Facial features that most reliably cued male identity were associated with plasma levels of testosterone (above and beyond age). Perceptible sex differences in face shape are thus associated with specific facial features whose emergence may be, in part, driven by testosterone.
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Transgender discrimination in the military: The new don't ask, don't tell
Matthew Kerrigan
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
With the recent repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, gay rights groups celebrated a new victory for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. However, most people do not realize that DADT did not apply to transgender persons. Transgender persons are banned from serving by various regulations within each division of the armed forces and a Department of Defense directive imposing certain psychological and medical restrictions. The restrictions are automatic and do not leave room for case-by-case evaluation of readiness to serve. This paper first examines a study conducted by the Palm Center of the University of California, Santa Barbara, which provides new insight into the plight of transgender service members and veterans. It then discusses the broad-reaching impact of certain military regulations that threaten not only transgender rights, but the rights of all LGBT persons in the military. It then examines the limited case law pertaining to transgender rights and discrimination in the military. Finally, this paper argues that if regulations targeting transgender persons are not reexamined, the repeal of DADT might not truly protect all lesbian, gay and bisexual persons, as the existing regulations leave room for arbitrary discrimination.
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"You Live Where?!" Lesbian Mothers' Attachment to Nonmetropolitan Communities
Ramona Faith Oswald & Vanja Lazarevic
Family Relations, October 2011, Pages 373-386
Abstract:
A positive attachment to one's residential community has been linked to better mental health (McLaren, 2009), stronger social support (Young, Russell, & Powers, 2004), and a higher quality of life (Mak, Cheung, & Law, 2009). Attachment to residential community has been understudied in research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families. The current study attempts to fill this gap by using family and minority stress theories to examine the predictors of residential community attachment among 77 lesbian mothers living in nonmetropolitan communities. Our findings indicate that stronger residential community attachment is predicted by more frequent contact with family of origin, low religiosity, and an interaction between close LGBT friendships and the presence of at least one local LGBT organization. Contrary to expectations, anti-LGBT victimization perpetrated by community members did not have an effect on residential community attachment.
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Digit ratio (2D:4D) predicts facial, but not voice or body odour, attractiveness in men
Camille Ferdenzi et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 7 December 2011, Pages 3551-3557
Abstract:
There is growing evidence that human second-to-fourth digit ratio (or 2D:4D) is related to facial features involved in attractiveness, mediated by in utero hormonal effects. The present study extends the investigation to other phenotypic, hormone-related determinants of human attractiveness: voice and body odour. Pictures of faces with a neutral expression, recordings of voices pronouncing vowels and axillary odour samples captured on cotton pads worn for 24 h were provided by 49 adult male donors. These stimuli were rated on attractiveness and masculinity scales by two groups of 49 and 35 females, approximately half of these in each sample using hormonal contraception. Multivariate regression analyses showed that males' lower (more masculine) right 2D:4D and lower right-minus-left 2D:4D (Dr-l) were associated with a more attractive (and in some cases more symmetrical), but not more masculine, face. However, 2D:4D and Dr-l did not predict voice and body odour masculinity or attractiveness. The results were interpreted in terms of differential effects of prenatal and circulating testosterone, male facial shape being supposedly more dependent on foetal levels (reflected by 2D:4D ratio), whereas body odour and vocal characteristics could be more dependent on variation in adult circulating testosterone levels.
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Second to fourth digit ratio and the sporting success of sumo wrestlers
Rie Tamiya, Sun Youn Lee & Fumio Ohtake
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The second (index finger) to fourth (ring finger) digit length ratio (2D:4D) is known to be a putative marker of prenatal exposure to testosterone. It has been reported that fetal and adult testosterone may be critical for development of physical and mental traits such as cardiovascular system, reaction time, aggressiveness and masculinity. Testosterone-driven attributes are associated with success in male-to-male physical competition, which may be proxied by ability in sports. Many researchers have found that 2D:4D is sexually dimorphic and is a negative correlate of athletic performance. This study aims to investigate the associations of 2D:4D with measures of power as another possible testosterone-associated trait using ability in sumo wrestling as a proxy for male physical competitiveness. The measures of sumo performance comprised the sumo ranks and winning percentages of 142 Japanese professional sumo wrestlers. We found that sumo wrestlers with low 2D:4D had higher sumo ranks and better winning records. The significant negative associations between 2D:4D and the athletic prowess of sumo wrestlers provide further evidence of the possible link between high testosterone levels and muscle strength. The relatively small effect sizes found in this study, however, imply that 2D:4D may be a weaker predictor for sports requiring explosive power than for those requiring endurance.
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Gender and Binegativity: Men's and Women's Attitudes Toward Male and Female Bisexuals
Megan Yost & Genéa Thomas
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study assessed the influence of gender on attitudes about bisexuals. A total of 164 heterosexual female and 89 heterosexual male undergraduates completed the Biphobia Scale (Mulick & Wright, 2002), rewritten to refer to bisexual men and bisexual women and thus re-named the Gender-Specific Binegativity Scale. A mixed-design ANOVA revealed an interaction between rater's sex and target's sex: women equally accepted bisexual men and bisexual women, but men were less accepting of bisexual men than bisexual women. A mediation analysis indicated the relationship between rater's sex and greater acceptance of bisexual women was partially explained by eroticization of female same-sex sexuality. Finally, participants also responded to two open-ended items, which provided additional information about the content of binegativity: participants described male bisexuals negatively, as gender-nonconforming, and labeled them "really gay," whereas participants described female bisexuals positively, as sexy, and labeled them "really heterosexual." These findings suggest multiple underlying beliefs about bisexuals that contribute to binegativity, particularly against bisexual men. Results also confirm the importance of considering gender (of both the target and the rater) when assessing sexual prejudice.
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Hyper-femininity as decency: Beauty, womanhood and respect in emigration
Martina Cvajner
Ethnography, September 2011, Pages 356-374
Abstract:
This article explores the meanings of hyper-feminine performances enacted by a group of former USSR women migrating to Alpinetown (in northern Italy) and employed as live-in careworkers. Utilizing data from a three-year, multi-sited ethnography, I describe the ways in which they draw social boundaries and advance generalized claims for respect. I also document how such hyper-femininity is rooted in a performative understanding of womanhood as a normative project. Using evidence collected both in Alpinetown and in the sending areas, I also argue that hyper-femininity in emigration plays a compensatory role, allowing these women to detach themselves from conditions they regard as degrading. A main implication of the findings is that the notion of hyper-femininity may be usefully generalized beyond the Western middle-class contexts in which it was originally applied, to address the various ways in which women of different backgrounds make use of gender symbolism to establish claims to social worth and respect.
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Polyamorous Families, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Slippery Slope
Elisabeth Sheff
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, October 2011, Pages 487-520
Abstract:
Opponents of same-sex marriage identify multiple-partner families as the pivotal step that, were same-sex marriage legalized, would propel society down a "slippery slope" to relational chaos. Like the families of same-sex partners, polyamorous families - or those with adults in openly conducted multiple-partner relationships - demonstrate alternate forms of kinship not necessarily dependent on conventional biolegal kin, sexual connections, or even chosen kin ties as previously understood. This article extends sociological knowledge by detailing characteristics of relatively unknown family form; comparing original data on polyamorous families with published research on same-sex families instead of heterosexual families, a contrast that decenters heterosexual families as the sole measure of legitimacy while simultaneously expanding knowledge about same-sex families and explaining how polyamorous families' differences have implications for the same-sex marriage debate and how these shifting social norms implicate changes for the field of family studies and larger society.