You (don't) sound gay!: A study on the effects of homosexual speech and expectancy violation on target likeability
Abstract
In this study, participants were exposed to an audio recording of a campaign speech as read by either a gay-sounding or straight-sounding male who gave cues regarding his sexual orientation that did or did not match the vocal stereotypes presented. Participants were then asked to complete a survey regarding the candidateÃs friendliness, likeability, and how likely the participant would be to vote for the candidate; they were also asked their own sexual orientation, age, gender, and they answered several questions regarding their level of heterosexism. An analysis of covariance was then run to determine (a) the effects of this mismatch of information and (b) the gender differences in these effects. The results found a marginally significant gender difference in how likeable participants found mismatched perceptions of sexual orientation and given sexuality, such that women liked the mismatched candidates better than men did.