Citation

Snyder JS, Henry PJ. Psychol. Sci. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/09567976231173903

PMID

37249144

Abstract

Regional explicit and implicit bias are associated with real-world discrimination and marginalization. We extended this research area by focusing on sexual minorities and where same-gender couples live. Using data on 2,939 U.S. counties from Project Implicit and other publicly available sources, we found that measures with known associations with systemic anti-lesbian, gay, and bisexual (anti-LGB) bias are similarly associated with regional implicit and explicit anti-LGB bias. Furthermore, we found that fewer same-gender couples reside in counties with more explicit and implicit anti-LGB bias, above and beyond other factors that likely influence same-gender-couple residency. These findings further suggest that explicit and implicit measures of regional bias are capturing similar, if not the same, construct of a region's culture of bias toward particular groups. Couched specifically within the ongoing systemic political antagonization of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+) community, these findings also highlight the importance of considering contextual (in addition to individual) factors that reinforce systemic inequality.

Language: en

Keywords

antigay attitudes; Implicit Association Test; open data; regional-level bias; systemic bias