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When Might Heterosexual Men Be Passive or Compassionate Toward Gay Victims of Hate Crime? Integrating the Bystander and Social Loafing Explanations

Owuamalam, Chuma Kevin; Matos, Andrea Soledad

Authors

Andrea Soledad Matos



Abstract

Compassionate feelings for people who are victimized because of their perceived sexual deviance (e.g., gay men) may be incompatible with support for heterosexual norms among heterosexual men. But, indifference (or passivity) toward such victims could raise concern over heterosexual men’s gay-tolerance attitude. Two classic social psychological theories offer competing explanations on when heterosexual men might be passive or compassionate toward gay victims of hate crime. The bystander model proposes passivity toward victims in an emergency situation if other bystanders are similarly passive, but compassionate reactions if bystanders are responsive to the victims. Conversely, the social loafing model proposes compassionate reactions toward victims when bystanders are passive, but passivity when other bystanders are already responsive toward the victims’ predicament. We tested and found supportive evidence for both models across two experiments (Ntotal = 501) in which passivity and compassionate reactions to gay victims of a purported hate crime were recorded after heterosexual men’s concern for social evaluation was either accentuated or relaxed. We found that the bystander explanation was visible only when the potential for social evaluation was strong, while the social loafing account occurred only when the potential for social evaluation was relaxed. Hence, we unite both models by showing that the bystander explanation prevails in situations where cues to social evaluation are strong, whereas the social loafing effect operates when concern over social judgement is somewhat muted.

Citation

Owuamalam, C. K., & Matos, A. S. (2020). When Might Heterosexual Men Be Passive or Compassionate Toward Gay Victims of Hate Crime? Integrating the Bystander and Social Loafing Explanations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(5), 1693-1709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01592-y

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 22, 2019
Online Publication Date Dec 20, 2019
Publication Date 2020-07
Deposit Date Dec 6, 2023
Journal Archives of Sexual Behavior
Print ISSN 0004-0002
Electronic ISSN 1573-2800
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 49
Issue 5
Pages 1693-1709
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01592-y
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1983731
Additional Information Correction to: When Might Heterosexual Men Be Passive or Compassionate Toward Gay Victims of Hate Crime? Integrating the Bystander and Social Loafing Explanations: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01687-x