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Category: Project

Description: This study tested the effects of learned group information and time on perceptions of LGBT individuals. Using a minimal group paradigm, self-identified heterosexual participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to a condition where LGBT targets were included in their ingroup or in a competing outgroup. Participants learned positive trait information about both groups and were tested on their attitudes toward LGBT issues, trait ratings of the groups’ members, evaluations of their ingroup either the at a short- or a long-delay. Results demonstrated that attitudes toward LGBT issues did not differ as a function of group information or time. Contrary to predictions participants whose ingroup included LGBT members evaluated those members less positively at the long-delay versus the short-delay condition. Consistent with our hypotheses, no differences emerged in evaluations of LGBT outgroup members over time. These findings suggest that members of stigmatized groups are perceived more negatively when associated with one’s ingroup.