How women's sexual orientation guides accuracy of interpersonal judgements of other women

This research examines how women's sexual orientation guides the accuracy of judgements of other women. One hundred ten judges (67 straight and 43 lesbian women) watched videotapes of 9 targets (4 straight and 5 lesbian) and made judgements about the targets' thoughts, emotions, personalit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition and emotion 2014-01, Vol.28 (8), p.1512-1521
Main Authors: Ruben, Mollie A., Hill, Krista M., Hall, Judith A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Affectivity. Emotion
Biological and medical sciences
Emotion recognition
Empathic accuracy
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Heterosexuality - psychology
Homosexuality, Female - psychology
Humans
Interpersonal accuracy
Interpersonal Relations
Judgment
Personality judgement
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sexual Behavior - psychology
Sexual orientation
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social Perception
Social psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:This research examines how women's sexual orientation guides the accuracy of judgements of other women. One hundred ten judges (67 straight and 43 lesbian women) watched videotapes of 9 targets (4 straight and 5 lesbian) and made judgements about the targets' thoughts, emotions, personality, and sexual orientation. Accuracy scores were created for each judge by comparing judgements to criterion data gathered about targets. Straight judges were significantly more accurate at judging thoughts and marginally more accurate at judging emotions compared to lesbian judges. There were no significant differences in judging personality. Straight targets' thoughts and personality were more easily assessed than lesbian targets' while lesbians' emotions were more easily judged than straight targets'. Lesbian judges were more accurate at judging sexual orientation regardless of their tendency to categorize women as lesbian compared to straight judges. Findings support past research on the accurate perception of sexual orientation and contribute to understanding how sexual orientation guides person perception.
ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/02699931.2014.890093