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What do people believe about gay males? A study of stereotype content and strength

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The current research examined the content and strength of the gay male stereotype. This focus represents a return to the earliest issues addressed by social psychologists. Although once a major substantive area in social psychology, issues of content gradually gave way to issues of process. However, issues of content and process are inextricably tied to one another. Content studies detail the specific attributes in stereotypes, their strength, valence, and inaccuracy. Process studies use this information to examine when stereotypes will influence social reality and social perception. The current research showed that beliefs about gay males included attributes from multiple stereotype components, formed two subtypes, and varied in strength. These findings have implications for research on issues of process because knowing what people believe about gay males and how strongly they hold those beliefs provides insight into when stereotypes may be most likely to create biases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Tillett Hall, Room 101 Livingston Campus, 08903, New Brunswick, NJ

    Stephanie Madon

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  1. Stephanie Madon
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This paper was partially funded by a grant from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) for dissertation research. Portions of this research were presented at the 67th Annual Conference of the Eastern Psychological Association, March 29-31, Philadelphia, PA. Special thanks are given to Max Guyll, Richard Ashmore, Alison Smith, and Dave Wilder for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this article, and to Shelly Keiper for her assistance in collecting the data.

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Madon, S. What do people believe about gay males? A study of stereotype content and strength. Sex Roles 37, 663–685 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936334

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