Concealment of sexual orientation.
Sex-atypical behaviors may be used to identify a person as homosexual. To shield themselves from prejudice, homosexual people may attempt to conceal these behaviors. It is not clear how effectively they can do so. In Study 1, we asked homosexual participants to conceal their sex-atypical behaviors while talking about the weather. Raters watched videos of the participants and judged the likelihood that each participant was homosexual. Homosexual participants were able to partially conceal signs of their orientation, but they remained distinguishable from heterosexual participants. In Study 2, we tested the ability to conceal signs of one's sexual orientation in a more demanding situation: a mock job interview. In this scenario, homosexual men were even less effective at concealing their orientation. Higher cognitive demands in this new situation may have interfered with their ability to conceal.
Sylva
David
D
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. d-sylva@northwestern.edu
Rieger
Gerulf
G
Linsenmeier
Joan A W
JA
Bailey
J Michael
JM
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009790:Occupations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult