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Homosexual Labeling and the Male Role
Author(s) -
Karr Rodney G.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb02615.x
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , male homosexuality , social psychology , social perception , homosexuality , developmental psychology , medicine , men who have sex with men , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , neuroscience , psychoanalysis , family medicine , syphilis
This study attempted to experimentally isolate and determine the effects of the label “homosexual” upon the perceptions and behavior of the social audience toward men so labeled. Participants rated three different experimental confederates, each labeled homosexual in three groups and not labeled homosexual in three groups. Men were perceived as being significantly less masculine and less preferred as a fellow participant in any future experiment when they were labeled homosexual. The man responsible for the primary labeling of the homosexual was perceived as more masculine and more sociable when he labeled the homosexual than when he did not. Results are discussed in terms of the function of the fear of the homosexual label in maintaining the traditional male role.