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Heterosexism in Employment Decisions: The Role of Job Misfit
Author(s) -
Pichler Shaun,
Varma Arup,
Bruce Tamara
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00669.x
Subject(s) - heterosexism , psychology , social dominance orientation , employability , sexual orientation , social psychology , dominance (genetics) , diversity (politics) , homosexuality , developmental psychology , pedagogy , biochemistry , chemistry , authoritarianism , sociology , politics , political science , anthropology , psychoanalysis , law , democracy , gene
We developed and tested a model of heterosexism in employment decisions based on the lack of fit model of discrimination and social psychological research on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Results were supportive of both perspectives in that job candidates' sexual orientation, gender, and job gender type interacted with raters' gender and exposure to diversity training to predict ratings of candidate hirability. Consistent with prior attitudinal research, male raters tended to perceive gay male applicants as least suitable for employment. Finally, raters' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, beliefs about the employability of gay men and lesbians, and social dominance orientation were differentially related to suitability and hirability ratings. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.