Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interactive Effects Of Obvious And Ambiguous Social Categories On Perceptions Of Leadership: When Double-Minority Status May Be Beneficial, John Paul Wilson, Jessica D. Remedios, Nicholas O. Rule

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Easily perceived identities (e.g., race) may interact with perceptually ambiguous identities (e.g., sexual orientation) in meaningful but elusive ways. Here, we investigated how intersecting identities impact impressions of leadership. People perceived gay Black men as better leaders than members of either single-minority group (i.e., gay or Black). Yet, different traits supported judgments of the leadership abilities of Black and White targets; for instance, warmth positively predicted leadership judgments for Black men but dominance positively predicted leadership judgments for White men. These differences partly occurred because of different perceptions of masculinity across the intersection of race and sexual orientation. Indeed, both …