Abstract
The growing body of literature on the recognition of sexual orientation from voice (“auditory gaydar”) is silent on the cognitive and social consequences of having a gay-/lesbian- versus heterosexual-sounding voice. We investigated this issue in four studies (overall N = 276), conducted in Italian language, in which heterosexual listeners were exposed to single-sentence voice samples of gay/lesbian and heterosexual speakers. In all four studies, listeners were found to make gender-typical inferences about traits and preferences of heterosexual speakers, but gender-atypical inferences about those of gay or lesbian speakers. Behavioral intention measures showed that listeners considered lesbian and gay speakers as less suitable for a leadership position, and male (but not female) listeners took distance from gay speakers. Together, this research demonstrates that having a gay/lesbian rather than heterosexual-sounding voice has tangible consequences for stereotyping and discrimination.
Highlights
Sexual orientation is a social category that, differently from many others that are signaled by clear visual features such as skin color, is not ascertained until the person self-discloses
We found that participants attributed more feminine items to the gay than to the heterosexual speakers, but more masculine items to the heterosexual than to the gay speakers (Table 1)
Lesbian speakers were more likely to be associated with masculine than to feminine characteristics
Summary
Sexual orientation is a social category that, differently from many others that are signaled by clear visual features such as skin color, is not ascertained until the person self-discloses. Gowen and Britt (2006) tested the interplay between vocal and explicit information about an individual’s sexual orientation on stigmatizing reactions They found that voice itself did not affect discrimination of the target, unless it violated expectations (e.g., a heterosexual man with a gay voice). These findings provide only initial evidence for the relation between vocal cues and stigmatization Our work extends this line of research by, first, investigating how voice affects gender stereotyping, social distance, and behavioral intentions when no explicit information about the speaker’s sexual orientation was available. As gender inversion theory (Kite & Deaux, 1987) suggests that gay/lesbian individuals are perceived similar to opposite-sex heterosexuals, we hypothesized that listeners would attribute more feminine (and fewer masculine) sports, fields of study, and traits to gay than to straight male speakers (Study 1a). We investigated whether voice-based stereotyping and discrimination were driven by categorization or by voice fea-
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