Discrimination of Applicants on the Basis of their Sexual Orientation: An Experimental Approach

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During the first funding period, the overarching objective of the project was to understand whether sexual-orientation based discrimination in application processes can be explained by considering the match between the perceived masculinity and femininity of applicants and of jobs. We applied the Lack-of-Fit Model to the social category sexual orientation. Based on the stereotype that lesbians and gay men transgress traditional gender roles, they should be perceived differently than heterosexuals on the two central dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model. Concretely, gay men should be ascribed higher communion (or warmth) than heterosexual men, whereas lesbians should be ascribed higher agency (including task-related competence) than heterosexual women. Towards these aims, a total of 19 experiments were carried out. They yielded many hypothesized and replicated findings (e.g., that gay men were ascribed high warmth). However, other findings were unexpected and cannot be explained by existing models, in particular findings pertaining to identity intersections (also called non-prototypical identities, e.g., Turkish lesbians in Germany). Findings of most of our experiments revealed positive judgments of these targets. The general objective of the second funding period is to advance knowledge on processes explaining (negative and positive) discrimination based on intersections of different social identity categories in work-related contexts. The ultimate objective is to use findings regarding identity intersections to extend and refine existing models. We will investigate under which conditions the assumption that applicants with non-prototypical group identities have faced discrimination explains their positive impressions (Aim 1). These experiments should also help explain our previous findings. Aim 2 is to develop extended research paradigms to test under which conditions non-prototypical targets are protected from discrimination and in how far this is related to perceivers’ characteristics. Finally, we will integrate existing findings in an extended theoretical model (Aim 3).