Article:

“New research provides initial evidence that using the label “straight” to describe heterosexual individuals can promote negative evaluations of gay men — particularly among highly religious people. The findings have been published in The Journal of Sex Research.

Previous research has shown that people associate certain spatial dimensions with morality. In particular, abstract shapes with curved lines were found to be implicitly associated with immorality, while shapes with straight lines were implicitly associated with morality.

Based on those findings, the authors of the current study were interested in whether the association between straightness and moral integrity influenced perceptions of homosexual (non-straight) individuals.”

Paper Abstract:

A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label “straight,” generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Study 1 exposed English speakers to an individual person described as straight (vs. heterosexual) while Study 2 exposed English speakers to a target person described as straight (vs. heterosexual vs. no label). Study 3 considered a non-English sample (i.e., Italian adults) and experimentally induced the association between the straight label and the concept of heterosexuality. In each study, participants were asked to express their attitudes toward a gay target after the manipulation. Results showed that heterosexual participants exposed to the label “straight” reported more negative attitudes toward gay men than heterosexual participants exposed to the label “heterosexual” (or when they were not exposed to any label). Critically, such an effect emerged only among highly religious participants. Implications for policies and prejudice reduction are discussed.