Abstract
Previous research has shown that resource scarcity decreases inclusiveness of racially ambiguous individuals when categorizing racial in-group members. Given that sexual identity can be visually ambiguous, the present studies sought to test this effect on in-group boundary formation for sexual identity in-groups. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to view a slideshow representing resource scarcity or abundance (i.e., priming procedure). Next, participants categorized 24 photographs into sexual identity groups. As predicted, participants in the scarcity condition categorized fewer faces as in-group members compared to those in the abundance condition. In Study 3, a no-prime control group revealed that for straight participants, in-group overexclusion was due to a perceived resource scarcity, while for sexual minority participants, this effect was due to perceived resource abundance. Implications are discussed in terms of real-world applications of the findings as well as the methodology utilized in this study.
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