An Intersectional Perspective on Age Stereotypes: Bisexual and Gay Men are Stereotyped as Younger than Heterosexual Men Even When Aging.

We analyzed the age stereotypes of heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men and the implications of such stereotypes for the conceptualization of older gay and bisexual men, specifically. In Study 1a (N = 158) and 1b (N = 155), we found that compared to heterosexual men, participants stereotyped gay men more on young- than elderly-stereotypical traits. Participants represented bisexual men not as "somewhere in between" the stereotypes about heterosexual and gay men, but were characterized more by young- than elderly-stereotypical traits. In Study 2 (N = 106), we reasoned that because of their sexual orientation, both older gay and bisexual men would be viewed as atypical subtypes of older men, considered to be heterosexual by default. As atypical subtypes, both older gay and bisexual men may be stereotyped less on traits associated with elderly men and more on traits associated with their sexual orientation membership, namely young-stereotypical traits. Consistently, compared with older heterosexual men, both older gay and bisexual men were perceived as less typical of older men, and their perceived atypicality accounted for them being stereotyped less as older and more as younger men. The results have been examined for intersectional stereotyping research and practical implications are discussed.

Imagined Intergroup Physical Contact Improves Attitudes Toward Immigrants.

In this set of research, we investigated the effects of intergroup physical contact on intergroup attitudes by relying on indirect contact strategies, namely the imagined contact paradigm. We implemented the imagined contact paradigm by leading participants to shape the mental imagery upon pictorial information. Specifically, in Study 1 participants saw a picture of a white hand touching a black hand [i.e., intergroup physical contact condition (InterPC)] or a picture of an outdoor scene (i.e., control condition), and were asked to imagine being either the toucher or in the outdoor scene, respectively. Results demonstrated that InterPC compared to control condition reduced intergroup bias. In Study 2 we compared the InterPC condition to a condition in which participants saw a white hand touching another white hand [i.e., intragroup physical contact (IntraPC)], and imagined to be the toucher. Again, we found that participants in the InterPC condition showed reduced intergroup bias compared to the IntraPC. Study 3 replicated results of Studies 1 and 2 by using an implicit measure of prejudice. Also, Study 3 further showed that asking participants to merely look at the picture of a white hand touching a black hand, without imagining being the toucher was not effective in reducing implicit prejudice. Results were discussed with respect to the literature on physical contact and prejudice reduction processes.

Automatic female dehumanization across the menstrual cycle.

In this study, we investigate whether hormonal shifts during the menstrual cycle contribute to the dehumanization of other women and men. Female participants with different levels of likelihood of conception (LoC) completed a semantic priming paradigm in a lexical decision task. When the word 'woman' was the prime, animal words were more accessible in high versus low LoC whereas human words were more inhibited in the high versus low LoC. When the word 'man' was used as the prime, no difference was found in terms of accessibility between high and low LoC for either animal or human words. These results show that the female dehumanization is automatically elicited by menstrual cycle-related processes and likely associated with an enhanced activation of mate-attraction goals.

Faster but Less Careful Prehension in Presence of High, Rather than Low, Social Status Attendees.

Ample evidence attests that social intention, elicited through gestures explicitly signaling a request of communicative intention, affects the patterning of hand movement kinematics. The current study goes beyond the effect of social intention and addresses whether the same action of reaching to grasp an object for placing it in an end target position within or without a monitoring attendee's peripersonal space, can be moulded by pure social factors in general, and by social facilitation in particular. A motion tracking system (Optotrak Certus) was used to record motor acts. We carefully avoided the usage of communicative intention by keeping constant both the visual information and the positional uncertainty of the end target position, while we systematically varied the social status of the attendee (a high, or a low social status) in separated blocks. Only thirty acts performed in the presence of a different social status attendee, revealed a significant change of kinematic parameterization of hand movement, independently of the attendee's distance. The amplitude of peak velocity reached by the hand during the reach-to-grasp and the lift-to-place phase of the movement was larger in the high rather than in the low social status condition. By contrast, the deceleration time of the reach-to-grasp phase and the maximum grasp aperture was smaller in the high rather than in the low social status condition. These results indicated that the hand movement was faster but less carefully shaped in presence of a high, but not of a low social status attendee. This kinematic patterning suggests that being monitored by a high rather than a low social status attendee might lead participants to experience evaluation apprehension that informs the control of motor execution. Motor execution would rely more on feedforward motor control in the presence of a high social status human attendee, vs. feedback motor control, in the presence of a low social status attendee.

Adolescents' Appraisal of Homophobic Epithets: The Role of Individual and Situational Factors.

Homophobic epithets have become commonly used insults among adolescents. However, evidence suggests that there are differences in how these homophobic epithets are evaluated based on beliefs held by the observer and the context in which they are used. To examine this, Italian high school students were asked to rate the offensiveness of homophobic epithets, as well as to consider how they or others would react to homophobic epithets across various situations. Homophobic beliefs and beliefs about the social acceptability of homophobic epithets were also examined. It was found that greater perceived social acceptability of homophobic epithets was related to dismissive reactions to their use, whereas homophobic beliefs were predictive of negative emotional reactions but in varying ways depending on the specific context. The results indicate that homophobic epithets may not always be perceived as homophobic by adolescents, and that attempts to alter the social acceptability of these insults may be an effective manner of reducing their use.

Gender hierarchy in the space: the role of gender status in shaping the spatial agency bias.

According to the Spatial Agency Bias (SAB), more agentic groups (men) are envisioned to the left of less agentic groups (women). This research investigated the role of social status in shaping the spatial representation of gender couples. Participants were presented pairs consisting of one male and one female target who confirmed gender stereotypes. The status of the targets in each pair was systematically varied (high-status vs. low-status job). Participants chose the target order (female/male vs. male/female) they preferred. In line with gender-status expectations (male: high-status, female: low-status), a male in a high-status job led to a spatial arrangement that favored the male/female order, regardless of the status of the female target. The female/male order was favored only when the female had a high-status job and the male a low-status job. No SAB occurred for pairs in which both targets displayed low-status jobs. The implications of status for the SAB are discussed.

Comparing group dehumanization and intra-sexual competition among normally ovulating women and hormonal contraceptive users.

Two studies address the role of hormonal shift across menstrual cycle in female dehumanization of other women. In Study 1, normally ovulating women (NOW) and women who use hormonal contraceptives (HCW) are compared in terms of how much they dehumanize other women and two other control targets (men and elderly people). In NOW, the level of dehumanization of other women, but not of men and elderly people, increases as the conception risk is enhanced. HCW do not show this pattern of results. In Study 2, we investigate the level of dehumanization of other women and of intra-sexual competition. Findings concerning dehumanization replicate those of Study 1. Intra-sexual competition increases with the rise of conception risk only in NOW. In addition, dehumanization is significantly associated with intra-sexual competition in NOW but not in HCW. Together, these studies demonstrate that dehumanization of women is elicited by menstrual cycle-related processes and associated with women's mate-attraction goals.