Stereotype Deduction About Bisexual Women

Abstract

Bisexuals are an invisible sexual minority. However, at the same time, bisexuals are stereotypically associated with confusion and promiscuity. Stereotype learning theories suggest that individuals who are unfamiliar with a social group are less likely to have stereotypical beliefs about its members. In contrast, it has been recently hypothesized that stereotypes about bisexuality are not necessarily learned but rather deduced based on common conceptualizations of sexuality. Because stereotypes are suppressed only if they are recognized as offensive, lack of knowledge regarding bisexual stereotypes should actually enhance their adoption. To assess the strength of the two competing accounts, we examined the relationship between explicit knowledge of bisexual stereotypes and stereotypical evaluation of bisexual individuals. Heterosexual participants (N = 261) read a description of two characters on a date and evaluated one of them. Bisexual women were evaluated as more confused and promiscuous relative to nonbisexual women. Moreover, the stereotypical evaluations of bisexual women were inversely related to knowledge about these stereotypes. The findings support the notion that bisexual stereotypes are not learned but rather deduced from shared assumptions about sexuality. Consequently, public invisibility not only exists alongside bisexual stereotypes but might also exacerbate their uninhibited adoption.

Stereotype Content at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Orientation

“…Previous research into stereotypes about bisexual people have found a lack of knowledge among heterosexual individuals about traits associated with bisexual women and men (Zivony and Lobel, 2014), while homosexual and bisexual individuals report stereotypes closer to those about homosexual groups (Burke and LaFrance, 2016a,b). The need for further study into determining factors for stereotype content in relation to bisexual groups is not limited to perceiver sexual orientation, but also includes salience of the assumed gender of sexual partners (Zivony and Saguy, 2018) and the impact of essentialist views on sexuality (Hubbard and de Visser, 2015). This can provide further information on how gender is given meaning by a perceiver depending on the interplay of gender, sexual orientation, gender of partner, and perceiver attitudes.…”

Bisexual stereotypes apply differently by body size: An assessment of bisexual prototypicality, trait application, and body size

“…Conversely, bisexuality is publicly invisible (Zivony & Saguy, 2018). Public awareness of bisexuality and focus on bisexual-specific issues is limited, including within broader queer communities (Gurevich et al, 2007;Zivony & Saguy, 2018).…”

“…Conversely, bisexuality is publicly invisible (Zivony & Saguy, 2018). Public awareness of bisexuality and focus on bisexual-specific issues is limited, including within broader queer communities (Gurevich et al, 2007;Zivony & Saguy, 2018). Social and academic movements for queer rights and inclusion have excluded bisexual people (see Rothblum, 2020;Weier, 2020).…”

“…Further, bisexuality is often rendered invisible on the individual level, as bisexual individuals in monogamous relationships with partners of any gender are often perceived as having "chosen a side" and thus no longer being bisexual (e.g., Hartman-Linck, 2014;Hayfield et al, 2018). Despite this invisibility (or perhaps because invisibility enhances adoption of stereotypes in the absence of further knowledge; see Zivony & Saguy, 2018), bisexual people face pervasive and extensive stigmatization and prejudice (e.g., Dodge et al, 2016;Herek, 2002;Matsick & Rubin, 2018).…”

“…Bisexual prejudice is perpetuated by a host of negative cultural stereotypes about bisexual people, including notions of bisexual identities as unstable and illegitimate (see Brewster & Moradi, 2010) as well as perceptions of bisexual people as promiscuous, hypersexual, sexually diseased, untrustworthy, confused, and immoral (Burke & LaFrance, 2016;Eliason, 2000;Friedman et al, 2014;Mohr & Rochlen, 1999;Spalding & Peplau, 1997;Zivony & Saguy, 2018). The concealable nature of bisexuality -constituting a discreditable identity as described by Goffman (1963) -may protect bisexual people from facing discrimination (when bisexuality is concealed), but concealment comes at personal cost (e.g., social anxiety, Cohen et al, 2016).…”