Imagined contact with famous gay men and lesbians reduces heterosexuals’ misidentification concerns and sexual prejudice

Abstract

Gay men and lesbians experience bigotry at alarmingly high rates. Traditionally, researchers have focused on reducing sexual prejudice; however, research indicates that heterosexuals’ concerns about being misidentified as gay/lesbian also contribute to the derogation of gay/lesbian individuals. Thus, reducing misidentification concerns is a critical part of decreasing negativity toward gay/lesbian individuals. In the current work, we explored a novel addition to the imagined contact paradigm—imagined contact with famous outgroup members—for reducing misidentification concerns. We found that imagined contact with famous gay men/lesbians reduced misidentification concerns within the imagined interaction and engendered an eagerness to befriend the famous gay/lesbian interaction partner. Moreover, we found that the reduction of these misidentification concerns led to fewer general contagion concerns, and increased eagerness to befriend led to decreased sexual prejudice. The current work develops a useful intervention for improving multiple responses toward gay men and lesbians.

Imagined and extended contact experiences and adolescent bystanders' behavioral intentions in homophobic bullying episodes

“…Importantly for the current studies, research has shown that positive imagined contact (i.e., imagining having contact with a famous gay or lesbian person) reduces concerns of misidentification as gay or lesbian (i.e., contagion concerns; Lacosse & Plant, 2018). This type of concern may be particularly important for adolescents due to the pressure they usually experience to behave according to traditional gender norms by society, parents, and peers (Espelage, Valido, et al, 2018).…”

“…These findings provided preliminary evidence for the negative consequences of social contagion concerns in the context of bystanders' behavioral intentions in homophobic bullying episodes. Importantly for the current studies, research has shown that positive imagined contact (i.e., imagining having contact with a famous gay or lesbian person) reduces concerns of misidentification as gay or lesbian (i.e., contagion concerns; Lacosse & Plant, 2018 ).…”

What should allies do? Identifying activist perspectives on the role of white allies in the struggle for racial justice in the United States

“…It is unclear whether different motivations and ideologies underpin people's preferences on allyship roles. It is possible, for example, that motivations to appear non‐prejudiced may promote support for engaging in racial justice efforts without dominating it (LaCosse & Plant, 2019). As we could not claim any generalizability due to the nature of our data, future studies could use the findings of our Q methodology study by investigating the distribution of these viewpoints, the relationships between them, and participants’ characteristics using larger samples (e.g., profile correlation; Danielson, 2009).…”

Advancing research into the social psychology of sexual orientations and gender identities: Current research and future directions

“…However, the growing volume of research is not limited to recent societal events, and instead is part of a larger trend in which LGBTQ+ related research has become more visible in several areas of social psychology, including: social cognition (Carnaghi et al., 2021); antecedents and consequences of homonegativity (Bettinsoli et al., 2020) and internalized sexual stigma (Salvati, Pellegrini, et al., 2021b); minority stress model (Meyer & Frost, 2013); self‐concept and identity processes such as coming out (Mitha et al., 2021; Hinton et al., 2021); stereotypes and gender roles (Petsko & Bodenhausen, 2019; Salvati, Passarelli, et al., 2021; Valsecchi et al., 2020); objectification, and dehumanization processes (Breslow et al., 2020; Di Battista et al., 2020; Engeln‐Maddox et al., 2011; Szymanski et al., 2019); social change and collective action to promote LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality (Chan & Mak, 2020; Earle et al., 2021); interpersonal and intergroup relationships (LaCosse & Plant, 2019; Paterson et al., 2019); same‐sex couples and parenting (Costa et al., 2019; Rosenthal et al., 2019); sexual relationships and use of dating apps (Anderson et al., 2018; Cao & Smith, 2021; Guschlbauer et al., 2019; Hinton et al., 2019); intersectionality including multiple minority status (Anderson & Koc, 2020; Koc & Vignoles, 2016, 2018; Stragà et al., 2020); leadership (De Cristofaro et al., 2020; Fasoli & Hegarty, 2020; Pellegrini et al., 2020); social contexts as protective or harmful environments (Baams & Russell, 2021; Bagci et al., 2020); effects of Coronavirus emergency on LGBTQ+ people (Drabble, & Eliason, 2021; Solomon et al., 2021). Overall, these studies have shown that there is higher acceptance of LGBTQ+ people around the world and more recognition of their rights; however, such progress shows a lot of variation across different countries and it is also vulnerable.…”