David J. Lick

Minority Stress and Physical Health Among Sexual Minorities

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals suffer serious mental health disparities relative to their heterosexual peers, and researchers have linked these disparities to difficult social experiences (e.g., antigay victimization) and internalized biases (e.g., internalized homophobia) that arouse stress. A recent and growing body of evidence suggests that LGB individuals also suffer physical health disparities relative to heterosexuals, ranging from poor general health status to increased risk for cancer and heightened diagnoses of cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Despite recent advances in this literature, the causes of LGB physical health problems remain relatively opaque. In this article, we review empirical findings related to LGB physical health disparities and argue that such disparities are related to the experience of minority stress—that is, stress caused by experiences with antigay stigma. In light of this minority stress model, we highlight gaps in the current literature and outline five research steps necessary for developing a comprehensive knowledge of the social determinants of LGB physical health.

The Interpersonal Consequences of Processing Ease: Fluency as a Metacognitive Foundation for Prejudice

Existing theories of prejudice formation focus primarily on the contents of social cognition (stereotypes, emotions) as laying the foundation for interpersonal animus. However, recent studies have revealed that experiential cues associated with the process of social cognition may also fuel prejudice. In particular, fluency—the metacognitive ease or difficulty of processing a stimulus—has emerged as an important factor contributing to prejudice. Across diverse operational definitions and at various levels of analysis, fluent processing is associated with positive social evaluations whereas disfluent processing is associated with negative social evaluations. Here, we review this burgeoning literature and highlight continued knowledge gaps to guide the next wave of research on the social consequences of fluency.

Recalled Social Experiences and Current Psychological Adjustment among Adults Reared by Gay and Lesbian Parents

Children of gay and lesbian parents are a diverse group, but existing studies offer limited information about individual differences in their social experiences and subsequent psychological outcomes. In this study, 91 adults reared by gay and lesbian parents responded to measures of recalled social experiences as well as current depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction. Participants reported differing social experiences (e.g., stigma) as a function of their sex, family type, gay/lesbian parents sex, and age at which they learned that a parent was gay or lesbian. Despite such diverse experiences, participants reported no significant differences in long-term psychological adjustment. It could be the case that children of gay and lesbian parents learn to cope with difficult social experiences, leading to positive adjustment overall. Indeed, the current sample perceived their social experiences as becoming significantly more positive over the life course, with less stigma and more benefits related to their family situation during adulthood than during earlier developmental periods. Future studies of adaptive coping processes and longitudinal changes in social experiences among offspring of gay and lesbian parents are warranted.

Intersecting Race and Gender Cues are Associated with Perceptions of Gay Men’s Preferred Sexual Roles

Preferences for anal sex roles (top/bottom) are an important aspect of gay male identity, but scholars have only recently begun to explore the factors that covary with these preferences. Here, we argue that the gendered nature of both racial stereotypes (i.e., Black men are masculine, Asian men are feminine) and sexual role stereotypes (i.e., tops are masculine, bottoms are feminine) link the categories Asian/bottom and the categories Black/top. We provide empirical evidence for these claims at three levels of analysis: At the cultural level based upon gay men’s stereotypic beliefs about others (Study 1), at the interpersonal level based upon gay men’s perceptions of others’ sexual role preferences (Study 2), and at the intrapersonal level based upon racially diverse men’s self-reported sexual roles on a public hookup website (Study 3). These studies offer the first systematic evidence of linkages between race categories and sexual roles in gay male communities.

Why Do They Have to Flaunt it? Perceptions of Communicative Intent Predict Antigay Prejudice Based Upon Brief Exposure to Nonverbal Cues

Perceivers use gender-atypical nonverbal cues to categorize others as lesbian/gay, and the same cues help to explain the occurrence of antigay prejudice. Although these patterns replicate across recent studies, their proximal causes have received little attention. It remains unclear, for example, why the gender-atypical appearances common among sexual minority individuals arouse negative evaluations. Here, we tested whether perceptions of communicative intent—believing that targets’ visible features are deliberately enacted in order to convey aspects of their identities—may help to explain observed links between sexual orientation categorization, gender typicality, and prejudice. In Study 1, gender-atypical body motions were associated with the perception that targets were intentionally trying to communicate their identity, and perceptions of communicative intent predicted expressions of antigay prejudice. Study 2 replicated these effects with static facial images. Collectively, these findings highlight communicative intent as an important factor predicting antigay prejudice in the early moments of social perception.

Perceptual Underpinnings of Antigay Prejudice: Negative Evaluations of Sexual Minority Women Arise on the Basis of Gendered Facial Features

Psychologists have amassed robust evidence of antigay prejudice by assessing participants’ global attitudes toward sexual minorities and their reactions to behavioral descriptions of hypothetical targets. In daily interactions, however, perceivers make decisions about others’ sexual orientations based upon visible cues alone. Does antigay prejudice arise on the basis of such visual exposure, and if so, why? Three studies revealed that perceivers evaluated women they categorized as lesbians more negatively than women they categorized as straight. Moreover, prejudice against lesbian women was strongly tethered to gendered aspects of their facial appearance: Women categorized as lesbians tended to appear gender-atypical, and women who appeared gender-atypical were perceived to be unattractive, leading to prejudice. Similar findings did not emerge for men categorized as gay. As such, we argue that gendered appearance cues lay the perceptual foundation for prejudice against women, but not men, who are categorized as sexual minorities.

“You Can’t Tell Just by Looking!” Beliefs in the Diagnosticity of Visual Cues Explain Response Biases in Social Categorization

Perceivers use visual information to categorize others into social groups. That said, anecdotal reports suggest that perceivers are more comfortable making some categorizations (race, sex) than others (sexual orientation) on the basis of such limited information, perhaps because they hold differing beliefs about the diagnosticity of visual cues to those categories. The current studies tested this hypothesis empirically. We first developed a new measure—the Diagnosticity Scale—to assess beliefs about the diagnosticity of visual cues to diverse social categories. Next, we demonstrated that diagnosticity beliefs explain response tendencies in social perception, such that weak beliefs in the diagnosticity of visual cues to a given category predict biases toward the non-stigmatized, default response option. Collectively, these studies introduce the Diagnosticity Scale as a valid measure of perceivers’ beliefs in visual cues to social categories, which help to explain some noteworthy biases in social perception.

Superior Pattern Detectors Efficiently Learn, Activate, Apply, and Update Social Stereotypes

Superior cognitive abilities are generally associated with positive outcomes such as academic achievement and social mobility. Here, we explore the darker side of cognitive ability, highlighting robust links between pattern detection and stereotyping. Across 6 studies, we find that superior pattern detectors efficiently learn and use stereotypes about social groups. This pattern holds across explicit (Studies 1 and 2), implicit (Studies 2 and 4), and behavioral measures of stereotyping (Study 3). We also find that superior pattern detectors readily update their stereotypes when confronted with new information (Study 5), making them particularly susceptible to counterstereotype training (Study 6). Pattern detection skills therefore equip people to act as naïve empiricists who calibrate their stereotypes to match incoming information. These findings highlight novel effects of individual aptitudes on social–cognitive processes.