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Design and Procedure
The study employed a posttest only control experimental design using random assignment to two conditions. The treatment condition (n = 78) watched scenes from the television show Transparent depicting a transgender woman (Maura). The control condition (n = 83) watched scenes of the same character, but before coming out as transgender (Morton). The same actor (Jeffrey Tambor) played Maura and Morton. After the videos, participants completed measures of affiliation with Maura or Morton, including affective empathy and PSI-process affect. Next, intergroup anxiety and social distance toward transgender people were measured. Participants then read about a proposed “bathroom bill” that would segregate public restrooms based on biological sex. The description was taken from the HB2 bill proposed in North Carolina. After reading HB2, participants completed attitude measures toward the bill and PSR with the actor Jeffrey Tambor.[...]

Video Stimulus
Video stimulus was taken from the show Transparent, which follows a transgender woman as she transitions from identifying as a cisgender male (Morton) to a transgender woman (Maura). The videos were cut to only show scenes with Morton/Maura. Both videos were approximately 10 minutes and 40 seconds long. The treatment consisted of scenes from episode three (Moppa) which uses flashbacks to reveal Morton’s past experiences with cross-dressing, including when he first embraced the identity Maura. The episode culminates with Maura (in the present) using a women’s restroom for the first time. In the scene, a woman confronts Maura, calls Maura a pervert, and threatens to call security. The final scene shows a distraught Maura forced to use a portable toilet.[...]

For the control condition, participants watched scenes from the pilot, where Morton considers coming out as transgender. The episode revolves around Morton inviting his children to dinner, and the children theorizing about Morton’s announcement (e.g., he has cancer). An argument breaks out at dinner and Morton decides not to reveal he is transitioning. Critical to the study, the final scene of the pilot shows Morton changing clothes after his children leave, introducing the audience to Maura. This scene was cut from the study stimulus. Thus, the control was only exposed to Morton and never Maura.[...]

Instrumentation
PSI-Process Affect

Three items from Schramm and Hartmann (Citation2008) PSI-process affect scale were used to capture parasocial response to characters (e.g., “Sometimes I really loved [Maura/Morton] for what [he/she] did;” “If [Maura/Morton] felt bad, I felt bad as well;” and “Watching [Maura/Morton] left me unaffected”).[...]

Affective Empathy
Shen’s (Citation2010) four-item scale was used to capture affective empathy toward the characters (e.g., “[Maura’s/Morton’s] emotions are genuine;” “I experienced the same emotions as [Maura/Morton] when watching this video;” and “I can feel [Maura’s/Morton’s] emotions.”).[...]

Intergroup Anxiety
Stephan and Stephan (Citation1985) intergroup anxiety scale captured feelings about interacting with transgender people. [...]

Social Distance
Esses and Dovidio (Citation2002) 12-item social distance scale measured willingness to interact with transgender people (e.g., “have a transgender person as a close friend;” “accept a transgender person as a neighbor”). [...]

Attitude Toward Restroom Segregation Bill
Attitudes toward the HB2 bathroom bill were measured with Dillard and Shen (Citation2005) seven-item scale (e.g., how “good,” “wise,” or “favorable” is the HB2 bathroom bill?). [...]

PSR Toward the Actor
As the actor playing Maura/Morton is well known, and appears in numerous movies and television shows, PSR toward Jeffrey Tambor was captured as the final covariate using Rubin et al.’s (Citation1985) 10-item scale (e.g., “Jeffrey Tambor makes me feel comfortable, as if I am with a friend;” “Jeffrey Tambor seems to understand the kinds of things I want to know;” and “I look forward to watching Jeffrey Tambor on the next episodes of Transparent”). [...]