When intergroup contact is uncommon and bias is strong: the case of anti-transgender bias

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn contrast to the centrality of ‘coming out’ in the gay rights movement, transgender people may be less likely to disclose their transgender status due to the severity of anti-transgender stigma, structural factors and differences in how transgender status and sexual identity are expressed. As a consequence, intergroup contact with transgender people may be less common than gay contact, which may limit its effectiveness. In Study 1 (N = 174), transgender contact was much less frequent than gay contact, and transgender contact frequency was not associated with anti-transgender bias, although more positive transgender contact was associated with lower anti-transgender bias, and gay contact frequency was also independently associated with lower anti-transgender bias. In Study 2 (N = 277), greater transgender ‘media contact’ was associated with increased empathy for transgender people and decreased anti-transgender bias. In addition, several participants left unsolicited anti-transgender comments at the end of the study, and these participants tended to have less transgender contact and were higher in right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. Our results suggest that increasing contact with the LGBT community and increasing media representations of transgender people may decrease anti-transgender bias. Future directions building on these results are discussed.