Throwing Shade at Cyrus: Willingness to Censor Teen Homosexuality in Disney's Andi Mack.

The inclusion of a gay 13-year-old main character (Cyrus Goodman) on the Disney television series Andi Mack prompted social conservatives to call for the show's cancellation due to the alleged negative impact that Cyrus would have on the show's child audience. The present study explored individuals' support for the censorship of television portrayals of teen homosexuality in a sample of 232 United States residents who viewed clips from the series detailing Cyrus' storyline. Results found that censorship support was explained by homonegativity, conservative ideology, and authoritarianism, as well as perceptions that such depictions have a negative impact on the self and others. Response surface modeling also found evidence for a severity third-person effect (others more negatively impacted than the self) being related to increased censorship support. Directions for future research on the role of authoritarianism and sexual orientation beliefs in willingness to censor depictions of homosexuality are discussed.

Economic Myths Regarding Gay Men and Lesbians.

The present research was aimed at developing a measure of economic myths regarding the gay community. Using undergraduate (N = 332) and Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 212) samples, Study 1 resulted in a 6-item unidimensional and reliable measure, the Economic Myths Regarding Gays Scale (EMGS), that was minimally related to other measures of sexual orientation attitudes. Study 2 (N = 210 undergraduates) found that endorsement of economic myths was associated with system justification beliefs that economic inequalities were natural and due to individual merit; however, general attitudes toward gays showed no such relationships. Study 3 (N = 85 undergraduates) found that unlike general stereotyping, economic myth endorsement increased in response to induced economic threat from the gay community. Collectively, the present research suggests that the EMGS is largely distinct from other measures of attitudes and stereotyping and can potentially widen research regarding sexual orientation.

Evaluations of Antigay Hate Crimes and Hate Crime Legislation: Independent and Differentially Predicted.

Minimal studies have investigated individuals' evaluations of antigay hate crimes and hate crime legislation simultaneously, with most research focusing on one or the other. In a sample of 246 heterosexual undergraduates, the present study found that evaluations of antigay hate crimes and hate crime legislation were unrelated. Higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and crime control orientation scores were associated with more positive evaluations of antigay hate crimes. Positive evaluations of hate crime legislation were associated with more positive attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. We also found that the relationship between SDO and evaluations were mediated by crime control beliefs (for hate crimes evaluations) and antigay attitudes (for hate crime legislation evaluations). The present findings have possible implications for the manner in which organizations advocate for the extension of hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation.

The dimensionality of defense-mechanism parcels in the Defense Style Questionnaire-40.

The Defense Style Questionnaire-40 (DSQ-40; Andrews, Singh, & Bond, 1993) uses pairs of items to measure 20 individual defense mechanisms. In a statistical sense, these item pairs represent parcels and are subject to the standards of unidimensionality demanded of parcels in general. Using a 2-facet modeling approach (N = 672), the present study examined the dimensionality of the defense-mechanism parcels in the DSQ-40 and found that the majority of the parcels did not satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality. In addition, the original 3-factor model of defense styles was not tenable with the present data. Overall, the results suggest caution when attempting to assess individual defense mechanisms using the DSQ-40.

A reproductive threat-based model of evolved sex differences in jealousy.

Although heterosexual women and men consistently demonstrate sex differences in jealousy, these differences disappear among lesbians and gay men as well as among heterosexual women and men contemplating same-sex infidelities (infidelities in which the partner and rival are the same sex). Synthesizing these past findings, the present paper offers a reproductive threat-based model of evolved sex differences in jealousy that predicts that the sexes will differ only when the jealous perceivers' reproductive outcomes are differentially at risk. This model is supported by data from a web-based study in which lesbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, and heterosexual women and men responded to a hypothetical infidelity scenario with the sex of the rival randomly determined. After reading the scenario, participants indicated which type of infidelity (sexual versus emotional) would cause greater distress. Consistent with predictions, heterosexual women and men showed a sex difference when contemplating opposite-sex infidelities but not when contemplating same-sex infidelities, whereas lesbians and gay men showed no sex difference regardless of whether the infidelity was opposite-sex or same-sex.

Psychological antecedents of heterosexuals' pro-gay activism behavior.

Previous research on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gays is characterized by a focus on negative attitudes and minimal use of behavioral dependent variables. In an attempt to rectify this situation, the present study explored the psychological antecedents of heterosexuals' pro-gay activism behavior in an undergraduate sample using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Findings suggest that intentions predict activism behavior (in the form of signing an online petition supporting the construction of a new lesbian, gay, and bisexual resource center on their campus). In addition, attitudes toward the possible outcomes of the behavior, attitudes toward the behavior itself, and self-identity were found to predict intentions. Directions for future research on pro-gay activism are discussed.

Exploring heterosexual women's anti-lesbian attitudes.

Previous research on attitudes toward gays has mostly focused on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men, with little research specifically directed at anti-lesbian attitudes. Using a sample of 269 undergraduate heterosexual women, the present study tested two feminist propositions: Anti-lesbian attitudes would be associated with (1) conservative beliefs regarding the female gender-role and (2) attitudes toward men that support the differential status of women and men in the patriarchy. Findings based on a series of multiple regression analyses support these propositions across three components of anti-lesbian attitudes (contact apprehension, morality beliefs, and stereotypic beliefs). Directions for future research on anti-lesbian attitudes are discussed.

The components of sexual orientation, religiosity, and heterosexuals' impressions of gay men and lesbians.

In 2 studies, the authors explored whether emphasizing the sexual behavior of gay men and lesbians influences heterosexuals' impressions of gay male and lesbian targets. In both studies, participants read short vignettes of heterosexual and gay male or lesbian targets that described their sexual histories using information restricted to only 1 component of sexual orientation (emotion, behaviors, or fantasies). The results of Study 1 showed that participants rated a behavioral gay male target more negatively than they did the emotions and fantasy targets, and this difference was a function of participant religiosity. In Study 2, participants rated the behavioral lesbian target more negatively than they did the emotions and fantasy targets; however, these differential ratings of the lesbian targets were not affected by participant religiosity.