“If I Am Straight You Are Askew”: Labelling Heterosexuals as Straight Worsen Gay Men’s Perception

ABSTRACT

A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label “straight,” generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Study 1 exposed English speakers to an individual person described as straight (vs. heterosexual) while Study 2 exposed English speakers to a target person described as straight (vs. heterosexual vs. no label). Study 3 considered a non-English sample (i.e., Italian adults) and experimentally induced the association between the straight label and the concept of heterosexuality. In each study, participants were asked to express their attitudes toward a gay target after the manipulation. Results showed that heterosexual participants exposed to the label “straight” reported more negative attitudes toward gay men than heterosexual participants exposed to the label “heterosexual” (or when they were not exposed to any label). Critically, such an effect emerged only among highly religious participants. Implications for policies and prejudice reduction are discussed.

Acknowledgments

All the authors conceived the research idea. S. Sacchi and M Brambilla ran the studies. S. Sacchi conducted the data analysis and drafted the first version of the manuscript, while the other authors read and commented on it. The authors wish to thank Emily Atkins, Tatyana Papas and Holly Marquez for their help in data collection.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.