Challenged Expectations: Mere Exposure Effects on Attitudes About Transgender People and Rights Author Andrew Flores, Donald Haider-Markel, Daniel Lewis, Patrick Miller, Barry Tadlock, Jami Taylor Publication Year 2017 Type Journal Article Abstract Social categorization processes may be initiated by physical appearance, which have the potential to influence how people evaluate others. Categorizations ground what stereotypes and prejudices, if any, become activated. Gender is one of the first features people notice about others. Much less is known about individuals who may transgress gender expectations, including people who are transgender. Using an experiment, this study investigates whether the attitudes that people have about transgender people and rights are influenced by information and facial images. We hypothesize that mere exposure to transgender people, via information and images of faces, should be a source of prejudice reduction. We randomly provide participants with vignettes defining transgender and also randomize whether these vignettes come with facial images, varying the physical features of gendered individuals. We find our treatments have lower levels of discomfort and transphobia but have little effect on transgender rights attitudes. We further find that the impacts are stronger among Democrats than among Republicans. Our findings support the argument that people are in general unfamiliar with transgender people, and the mere exposure to outgroups can be a source of prejudice reduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) Keywords impression formation processes, expectation violation theory, mere exposure effect, LGBTQ, transgender Journal Political Psychology Volume 39 Pages 197–216 Type of Article Journal Article DOI 10.1111/pops.12402 Full text The following is an excerpt of the intervention methodology. For more information, please see the full text of the article on the publisher's website or through your institution's library. Method We examine exposure effects by utilizing an experiment with an online national sample of American adults. [...] Participants Our survey participants were not selected using a probability-based sample. [...] The mean age of the respondents was 50.6 years. A majority of respondents identified as White (80.5%), 9.2% identified as Black, 4.1% were Latino, 3.2% were Asian, and 2.3% identified as multiracial. Approximately half of respondents were women (49.2%). By party identification, about one-third of the respondents identified as Republicans (32.3%), 44.3% were Democrats, and 23.4% were Independents. [...] Dependent Variables The survey posttest asked respondents their attitudes, beliefs, and opinions about transgender people and rights. These questions were packaged into three distinct batteries: discomfort with transgender people, transphobia, and transgender rights. [...] Respondents were able to indicate that they were comfortable, somewhat comfortable, somewhat uncomfortable, or uncomfortable. [...] Transphobia. We used questions from the Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) to measure general antipathy toward gender nonconformity. [...] We used some of the questions that were asked in the Public Religion Research Institute (2011) survey on transgender rights. [...] We also created original questions mimicking items relating to gay rights found in the General Social Survey and the ANES. Additionally, we asked questions about transgender rights. [...] Type of Prejudice/Bias Transgender/Genderqueer Country United States Method Online / Survey Setting Online Google ScholarDOIBibTeX
