Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?

Owuamalam, Chuma Kevin; Matos, Andrea Soledad

Abstract

Why would heterosexual men downplay their compassion for masculine (vs. feminine) gay victims of hate crime? Two social identity-inspired explanations provide contrasting answers to this question. The reactive distinctiveness thesis (RD) assumes that heterosexual men would downplay their compassion more, when cued to a gay victim's masculinity than to their femininity, provided evaluative concerns are strong. In contrast, the feminization-threat thesis (FT) assumes that compassion downplays would be more visible when heterosexual men are cued to a gay victim's femininity (not to the victim's masculinity), provided evaluative concerns are strong too. Consistent with RD, three experiments (Ntotal = 1,475) revealed that heterosexual men who read news about (gay) victims at a hate crime scene downplayed their compassion to a greater degree when cued to the masculinity rather than to the femininity of such targets (Studies 1–3). Meanwhile FT's prediction received partial support when considering feminine (vs. masculine) heterosexual victims, rather than homosexual victims (Study 3).

Citation

Owuamalam, C. K., & Matos, A. S. (2022). Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?. European Journal of Social Psychology, 52(2), 280-304. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2787

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 18, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jul 23, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Deposit Date: Dec 6, 2023
• Journal: European Journal of Social Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0046-2772
• Electronic ISSN: 1099-0992
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 280-304
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2787
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1983720