Keeping my distance: prejudice towards transwomen and its socio-political and moral predictors

ABSTRACT

This research aims to examine transprejudice in the Turkish cultural context and identify its socio-political and morality-based correlates. To that end, we report two studies. In Study 1, we manipulate the gender identity of a hypothetical victim in a violent criminal scenario. We find that people (N = 116) put greater social distance towards a transwoman compared to a ciswoman victim, yet do not distinguish between the two in terms of responsibility attributions. In Study 2 (N = 175), we explore the socio-political and moral underpinnings of transprejudice by focusing on the role of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) in different forms of transprejudice through the mediating functionof moral foundations. RWA predicts greater social distance and less positive affect towards transwomen through the purity foundation; while SDO predicts lower positive affect through the care foundation. The findings show that transprejudice does exist to some extent and that RWA seems to be a potent socio-political predictor of transprejudice in Turkey. The moral foundations, on the other hand, do not seem to play the mediator role that has been shown for other prejudice domains and different cultural contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Transprejudice
• gender identity
• RWA
• SDO
• moral foundations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gülden Sayılan

Gülden Sayılan is a social psychologist from Turkey who has received her PhD degree from Middle East Technical University. Her research interests include social psychology of gender, prejudice and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities, masculinity studies and political psychology. She has co-authored several articles and book chapters related to prejudice and discrimination against gender minorities. Also, she has been a member of editorial board of the international peer reviewed journal named Masculinities: A Journal of Identity and Culture since 2013. She has been working as a research assistant at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University.

Beril Türkoğlu

Beril Türkoğlu is an assistant professor of social psychology at Ankara Medipol University, Turkey, and she has received her PhD from Middle East Technical University. She had been visiting scholar at University of South Florida, Gender and Interpersonal Relations Dynamics Lab, USA. Her research is mainly focused on the dynamics of precarious manhood and womanhood; prejudice and discrimination towards sexual and gender minorities; and gender stereotypes. She is also interested in political psychology with a specific focus on sociopolitical attitudes and political orientation. She has been an active member of Initiative for Critical Studies of Masculinities (ICSM) in Turkey, and a member of an editorial board of Masculinities: A Journal of Identity and Culture.

Banu Cingöz-Ulu

Banu Cingöz-Ulu is an assistant professor of social psychology at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She completed her PhD in York University, Toronto, Canada. Her research interests centre around collective identities –including national, ethnic, cultural, or gender identities. She is passionate about social-issue-driven research and intergroup relations with a special focus on minorities and discrimination.