The present study explored possible stereotypical beliefs, or myths, related to prejudice and discrimination toward transgender individuals in the US. In a 5 x 2 x 3 mixed factorial design, Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (N = 1,450) read a description of a target depicted as a sexual predator, HIV-positive, having a mental illness, an ally of transgender people, or unfair to others. They then completed an intuitive judgment task regarding the target’s gender (male or female) and identity stigma detail (transgender, sexual minority, or no stigmatized detail), and provided feeling thermometer ratings for various groups. Results indicated that participants perceived mental illness as relatively representative of transgender people, but not HIV-status or sexual predation. Feeling thermometer ratings for transgender people were significantly lower than those for other gender/stigma categories and were negatively correlated with participant religiosity and conservatism. We discuss these findings in terms of gendered assumptions and present implications for gender-related stigma and the role of perceived mental illness in antitransgender prejudice.
AltemeyerB.HunsbergerB. (1992). Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2, 113–133. doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0202_5
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, DC: Author.
3.
American Psychological Association. (2018). Transgender people, gender identity and gender expression: What does transgender mean? Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.aspx
4.
AndersonV. N. (2018). Cisgender men and trans prejudice: Relationships with sexual orientation and gender self-esteem. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 19, 373–384. doi:10.1037/men0000125
5.
BagozziR. P.BurnkrantR. E. (1980). Single component versus multicomponent models of attitude: Some cautions and contingencies for their use. NA – Advances in Consumer Research, 7, 339–344.
6.
Bar-HillelM. (1980). The base-rate fallacy in probability judgments. Acta Psychologica, 44, 211–233. doi:10.1016/0001-6918(80)90046-3
7.
BegunS.KattariS. K. (2016). Conforming for survival: Associations between transgender visual conformity/passing and homelessness experiences. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 28, 54–66. doi:10.1080/10538720.2016.1125821
8.
BemD. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. Psychological Review, 74, 183–200. doi:10.1037/h0024835
9.
BettcherT. M. (2007). Evil deceivers and make-believers: On transphobic violence and the politics of illusion. Hypatia, 22, 43–65. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2007.tb01090.x
10.
BodenhausenG. V. (1990). Stereotypes as judgmental heuristics: Evidence of circadian variations in discrimination. Psychological Science, 1, 319–322. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1990.tb00226.x
11.
BodenhausenG. V.WyerR. S. (1985). Effects of stereotypes in decision making and information-processing strategies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 267–282. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.48.2.267
12.
BrescollV. L. (2016). Leading with their hearts? How gender stereotypes of emotion lead to biased evaluations of female leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 27, 415–428. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.02.005
13.
BroussardK. A.WarnerR. H.PopeA. R. D. (2018). Too many boxes, or not enough? Preferences for how we ask about gender in cisgender, LGB, and gender-diverse samples. Sex Roles, 78, 606–624. doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0823-2
14.
BrovermanI. K.BrovermanD. M.ClarksonF. E.RosenkrantzP. S.VogelS. R. (1970). Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgments of mental health. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 34, 1–7. doi:10.1037/h0028797
15.
BuhrmesterM.KwangT.GoslingS. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data?Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3–5. doi:10.1177/1745691610393980
16.
CarrollL.GüssD.HutchinsonK. S.GaulerA. A. (2012). How do U.S. students perceive trans persons?Sex Roles, 67, 516–527. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0193-8
ChenB.AndersonV. N. (2017). Chinese college students’ gender self-esteem and trans prejudice. International Journal of Transgenderism, 18, 66–78. doi:10.1080/15532739.2016.1256803
19.
CostarelliS.GerłowskaJ. (2015). I am not prejudiced towards “them” . . . I am ambivalent! The moderating roles of attitudinal basis and motivation to respond without prejudice. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 19, 1–14. doi:10.1037/gdn0000017
20.
CragunR. T.SumerauJ. E. (2015). The last bastion of sexual and gender prejudice? Sexualities, race, gender, religiosity, and spirituality in the examination of prejudice toward sexual and gender minorities. Journal of Sex Research, 52, 821–834. doi:10.1080/00224499.2014.925534
21.
CrandallC. S.EshlemanA. (2003). A justification–suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 414–446. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.414
22.
DursoL. E.GatesG. J. (2012). Serving our youth: Findings from a national survey of service providers working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Retrieved from The Williams Institute website: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80x75033
23.
ElischbergerH. B.GlazierJ. J.HillE. D.Verduzco-BakerL. (2016). “Boys don’t cry”—or do they? Adult attitudes toward and beliefs about transgender youth. Sex Roles, 75, 197–214. doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0609-y
24.
ElischbergerH. B.GlazierJ. J.HillE. D.Verduzco-BakerL. (2018). Attitudes toward and beliefs about transgender youth: A cross-cultural comparison between the United States and India. Sex Roles, 78, 142–160. doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0778-3
25.
GazzolaS. B.MorrisonM. A. (2014). Cultural and personally endorsed stereotypes of transgender men and transgender women: Notable correspondence or disjunction?International Journal of Transgenderism, 15, 76–99. doi:10.1080/15532739.2014.937041
26.
GerhardsteinK. R.AndersonV. N. (2010). There’s more than meets the eye: Facial appearance and evaluations of transsexual people. Sex Roles, 62, 361–373. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9746-x
27.
GervaisW. M. (2014). Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. PLoS ONE, 9, e92302. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092302
28.
GlotfelterM. A.AndersonV. N. (2017). Relationships between gender self-esteem, sexual prejudice, and trans prejudice in cisgender heterosexual college students. International Journal of Transgenderism, 18, 182–198. doi:10.1080/15532739.2016.1274932
HayesA. F.MatthesJ. (2009). Computational procedures for probing interactions in OLS and logistic regression: SPSS and SAS implementations. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 924–936. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.3.924
31.
HernandezM.AveryD. R.TonidandelS.HeblM. R.SmithA. N.McKayP. F. (2016). The role of proximal social contexts: Assessing stigma-by-association effects on leader appraisals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 68–85. doi:10.1037/apl0000030
32.
HillD. (2003). Genderism, transphobia, and gender bashing: A framework for interpreting anti-transgender violence. In WallaceB. C.CarterR. T. (Eds.), Understanding and dealing with violence: A multicultural approach (pp. 113–136). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
33.
HuntingtonJ.BlackL. L. (2014). Women, you’ve come a long way, baby; or have you?: Male clinicians-in-training’s perceptions of women. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 26, 55–72. doi:10.1080/08952833.2014.905899
34.
JaukD. (2013). Gender violence revisited: Lessons from violent victimization of transgender identified individuals. Sexualities, 16, 807–825. doi:10.1177/1363460713497215
35.
JeffersonS. D.BramlettF. (2010). The moderating roles of gender and anti-gay prejudice in explaining stigma by association in male dyads. Journal of Homosexuality, 57, 401–414. doi:10.1080/00918360903543113
36.
KanamoriY.Cornelius-WhiteJ. H. D.PegorsT. K.DanielT.HulgusJ. (2017). Development and validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 1503–1515. doi:10.1007/s10508-016-0840-1
37.
KanamoriY.PegorsT. (2017). A comparison between self-identified evangelical Christians’ and nonreligious persons’ attitudes toward transgender persons. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 4, 75–86. doi:10.1037/sgd0000166
KoehlerJ. J. (1996). The base rate fallacy reconsidered: Descriptive, normative, and methodological challenges. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19, 1–53. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00041157
40.
KokenJ. A.BimbiD. S.ParsonsJ. T. (2009). Experiences of familial acceptance–rejection among transwomen of color. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 853–860. doi:10.1037/a0017198
41.
KundaZ.SpencerS. J. (2003). When do stereotypes come to mind and when do they color judgment? A goal-based theoretical framework for stereotype activation and application. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 522–544. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.522
42.
LewisA. R.DjupeP. A.MockabeeS. T.Su-Ya WuJ. (2015). The (non) religion of Mechanical Turk workers. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 54, 419–428. doi:10.1111/jssr.12184
43.
MacraeC. N.BodenhausenG. V. (2000). Social cognition: Thinking categorically about others. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 93–120. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.93
44.
Mouchetant-RostaingY.GiardM.DelpuechC.EchallierJ.PernierJ. (2000). Early signs of visual categorization for biological and non-biological stimuli in humans. Neuroreport, 11, 2521–2525. doi:10.1097/00001756-200008030-00035
45.
NagoshiJ. L.AdamsK. A.TerrellH. K.HillE. D.BrzuzyS.NagoshiC. T. (2008). Gender differences in correlates of homophobia and transphobia. Sex Roles, 59. doi:10.1007/s11199-008-9458-7
46.
NortonA. T.HerekG. M. (2013). Heterosexuals’ attitudes toward transgender people: Findings from a national probability sample of U.S. adults. Sex Roles, 68, 738–753. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0110-6
47.
PirlottA. G.NeubergS. L. (2014). Sexual prejudice: Avoiding unwanted sexual interest?Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 92–101. doi:10.1177/1948550613486674
48.
ReedO. M.FranksA. S.ScherrK. C. (2015). Are perceptions of transgender individuals affected by mental illness stigma? A moderated mediation analysis of anti-transgender prejudice in hiring recommendations. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2, 463–469. doi:10.1037/sgd0000138
49.
ReidyD. E.ShirkS. D.SloanC. A.ZeichnerA. (2009). Men who aggress against women: Effects of feminine gender role violation on physical aggression in hypermasculine men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10, 1–12. doi:10.1037/a0014794
RoenK. (2002). “Either/or” and “both/neither”: Discursive tensions in transgender politics. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 27, 501–522. doi:10.1086/495695
52.
RudmanL. A.MescherK.Moss-RacusinC. A. (2013). Reactions to gender egalitarian men: Perceived feminization due to stigma-by-association. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16, 572–599. doi:10.1177/1368430212461160
53.
ScoutN. (2016). Transgender health and well-being: Gains and opportunities in policy and law. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86, 378–383. doi:10.1037/ort0000192
54.
SilveiraJ. M.GoffS. C. (2016). Music teachers’ attitudes toward transgender students and supportive school practices. Journal of Research in Music Education, 64, 138–158. doi:10.1177/0022429416647048
55.
SmilerA. P.GelmanS. A. (2008). Determinants of gender essentialism in college students. Sex Roles, 58, 864–874. doi:10.1007/s11199-008-9402-x
56.
SternC.WestT. V.JostJ. T.RuleN. O. (2013). The politics of gaydar: Ideological differences in the use of gendered cues in categorizing sexual orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 520–541. doi:10.1037/a0031187
57.
TateC. C.LedbetterJ. N.YoussefC. P. (2013). A two-question method for assessing gender categories in the social and medical sciences. Journal of Sex Research, 50, 767–776. doi:10.1080/00224499.2012.690110
58.
TebbeE. N.MoradiB. (2012). Anti-transgender prejudice: A structural equation model of associated constructs. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 251–261. doi:10.1037/a0026990
59.
TomelleriS.CastelliL. (2012). On the nature of gender categorization: Pervasive but flexible. Social Psychology, 43, 14–27. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000076
60.
TverskyA.KahnemanD. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124–1131. doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
61.
TverskyA.KahnemanD. (1983). Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment. Psychological Review, 90, 293–315. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.90.4.293
62.
UhlmannE. L.BrescollV. L.MacheryE. (2010). The motives underlying stereotype-based discrimination against members of stigmatized groups. Social Justice Research, 23, 1–16. doi:10.1007/s11211-010-0110-7
63.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018). Labor force statistics from the current population survey. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm
64.
WilloughbyB. B.HillD. B.GonzalezC. A.LacorazzaA.MacapagalR. A.BartonM. E.DotyN. D. (2010). Who hates gender outlaws? A multisite and multinational evaluation of the Genderism and Transphobia Scale. International Journal of Transgenderism, 12, 254–271. doi:10.1080/15532739.2010.550821
65.
WinterS.ChalungsoothP.TehY. K.RojanalertN.ManeeratK.WongY. W.. . . MacapagalR. A. (2009). Transpeople, transprejudice and pathologization: A seven-country factor analytic study. International Journal of Sexual Health, 21, 96–118. doi:10.1080/19317610902922537
66.
WinterS.WebsterB.CheungP. K. E. (2008). Measuring Hong Kong undergraduate students’ attitudes towards transpeople. Sex Roles, 59, 670–683. doi:10.1007/s11199-008-9462-y
