The ‘gay’ voice stereotype and its consequences

Overview

Many people believe that it is possible to guess others’ sexual orientation from voice, the so-called auditory gaydar. Such gaydar judgments are likely to elicit stereotyping and stigmatisation in a variety of contexts (e.g., workplace, adoption decisions, teaching, health). In this line of research, we examine what are the beliefs that people have about voice as a cue of sexual orientation, what are the consequences of auditory gaydar judgments, and what are the experiences and coping strategies of those who are targets of such judgments. 

We have also recently started to examine the use of agentic language as a ‘tool’ to buffer voice-based discrimination.

These last studies were funded by the European Association of Social Psychology Collaborative grant.