Why are gay leaders perceived as ineffective? The role of the type of organization, sexual prejudice and gender stereotypes

Pellegrini, Valerio; Cristofaro, Valeria De; Giacomantonio, Mauro; Salvati, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.109817

Cited by 18 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…These results confirmed our expectations that gay men characterized by high ISS might respond in a more biased way to the lack of fit between stereotypical gay men and stereotypical leader representation (De Cristofaro et al, 2020; Lord & Maher, 1991; Eagly & Karau, 2002: Pellegrini et al, 2020). This seems to suggest that the stereotypical belief that leaders are masculine (Everly et al, 2016; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Liberman & Golom, 2015; Steffens et al, 2019), while gay men are more feminine and less masculine than heterosexual men (Kranz et al, 2017; Salvati et al, 2019), exists and is has also been internalized in gay men.…”

Section: Studysupporting

confidence: 87%

“…According to Leadership Categorization Theory (Lord & Maher, 1991), individuals in managerial positions could be viewed as masculine, whereas gay men challenge the perception of masculine leaders due to the perceived violation of gender stereotypes. Specifically, people tend to perceive a lack of fit between the features believed to be held by gay men (stereotypical feminine characteristics) and the requisite skills for leadership (stereotypical masculine characteristics) (Heilman, 1983; Pellegrini, De Cristofaro, Giacomantonio, & Salvati, 2020; Pica et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Embrace the leadership challenge: The role of Gay men’s internalized sexual stigma on the evaluation of others’ leadership and one’s own

Salvati

Pellegrini

Giacomantonio

et al. 2020

British J Social Psychol

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Grounded in the framework of the gay glass ceiling, the current research investigated the effect of gay men's internalized sexual stigma (ISS) on both the perceived effectiveness of other gay men's leadership and on their self-perceived leadership effectiveness and their intention to apply to a leadership position. In three studies (N = 402), we manipulated either the leader's sexual orientation (SO) (study 1), or his adherence to traditional gender roles (TGR) (study 2), or participants' fictitious masculinity score (study 3). Our hypotheses were as follows: the leader's SO and TGR would moderate the association of gay participants' ISS with their positive attitudes towards the leader and with his leadership effectiveness; and gay participants' masculinity threat would moderate the association of their ISS with their intention to apply to a leadership position, and with their self-perceived effectiveness as potential leaders. Moderated regression analyses showed that: participants reported a more positive attitude towards a gay man (vs. heterosexual) as leader only when they had lowand not high-ISS; participants with high (vs. low) ISS perceived the masculine gay leader as more effective than the feminine gay leader; under masculinity threat, participants with high (vs. low) ISS showed less intention to apply to a leadership position. These studies provide both confirmation and novel insights into the key role of internalized sexual stigma and traditional gender roles. Indeed, these factors can strengthen and perpetuate the gay glass ceiling effect.

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Section: Studysupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embrace the leadership challenge: The role of Gay men’s internalized sexual stigma on the evaluation of others’ leadership and one’s own

Salvati

Pellegrini

Giacomantonio

et al. 2020

British J Social Psychol

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“…GB men with low traditional masculinity are often the target of prejudice and discrimination (Cohen et al, 2009; D’Augelli et al, 2006; Glick et al, 2007; Pellegrini et al, 2020; Salvati et al, 2016, Salvati, Pistella, Ioverno, et al, 2018; Skidmore et al, 2006; Steffens et al, 2015). Thus, the fact that they did not show high implicit negative evaluations toward members of their ingroup was not surprising.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculinity threat and implicit associations with feminine gay men: Sexual orientation, sexual stigma, and traditional masculinity.

Salvati¹,

Passarelli²,

Chiorri³

et al. 2021

Psychology of Men & Masculinities

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The present study investigated implicit associations of stereotypical feminine and masculine gay men pictures with word stimuli referring to negative (vs. positive) and with self (vs. others) categories, among heterosexual and gay/bisexual men. We manipulated participants' masculinity threat through a fictitious personality score and measured their sexual prejudice, internalized sexual stigma, adherence to traditional masculinity, and the norms of traditional masculinity ideology. We conducted two preliminary studies (n total = 186) to create and select the picture stimuli for the implicit association test (IAT), whereas the first (n = 180) and the second (n = 301) studies tested our research hypotheses. In Study 1, the IAT detected the associations between the pictures with positive and negative word stimuli, and in Study 2 the word stimuli referred to the self and others categories. The results indicated that in the condition of masculinity threat, compared to masculinity confirmation and control groups, both heterosexual and gay/bisexual participants were more likely to associate the stereotypical feminine gay men pictures to the self (vs. others), but not to negative (vs. positive) category. Furthermore, results showed that adherence to traditional masculinity has the strongest relations with the implicit association test (IAT) scores, and that internalized sexual stigma assumes a moderating role for gay men. Limitations and further directions are discussed.

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“…Heterosexuality is more often than not assumed if no information to the contrary is provided given their numeric dominance in society. Hence, we anticipated that our subtle heterosexuality manipulation should be a sufficient and more natural/believable way of cueing participants to a victim's heterosexuality (see also Pellegrini et al, 2020;Salvati et al, 2020 for a similar approach). Apart from these changes, the victim type biographies were kept the same as those used in the previous studies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?

Owuamalam

Matos

2022

Euro J Social Psych

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Why would heterosexual men downplay their compassion for masculine (vs. feminine) gay victims of hate crime? Two social identity‐inspired explanations provide contrasting answers to this question. The reactive distinctiveness thesis (RD) assumes that heterosexual men would downplay their compassion more, when cued to a gay victim's masculinity than to their femininity, provided evaluative concerns are strong. In contrast, the feminization‐threat thesis (FT) assumes that compassion downplays would be more visible when heterosexual men are cued to a gay victim's femininity (not to the victim's masculinity), provided evaluative concerns are strong too. Consistent with RD, three experiments (Ntotal = 1,475) revealed that heterosexual men who read news about (gay) victims at a hate crime scene downplayed their compassion to a greater degree when cued to the masculinity rather than to the femininity of such targets (Studies 1–3). Meanwhile FT's prediction received partial support when considering feminine (vs. masculine) heterosexual victims, rather than homosexual victims (Study 3).

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Why are gay leaders perceived as ineffective? The role of the type of organization, sexual prejudice and gender stereotypes

Cited by 18 publications

References 58 publications

Embrace the leadership challenge: The role of Gay men’s internalized sexual stigma on the evaluation of others’ leadership and one’s own

Embrace the leadership challenge: The role of Gay men’s internalized sexual stigma on the evaluation of others’ leadership and one’s own

Masculinity threat and implicit associations with feminine gay men: Sexual orientation, sexual stigma, and traditional masculinity.

Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?

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