ABSTRACT

Bisexual individuals are invisible sexual minorities, who face prejudice and “double discrimination” from both heterosexual and sexual minority communities. Despite this, little empirical research has examined bisexual prejudice reduction. To address this, the current study tested an E-contact intervention – a highly structured, text-based, online interaction tool – to reduce bisexual prejudice. Heterosexual participants (N = 170) were randomly allocated to an intergroup (E-contact) or intragroup (control) interaction, with either a male or female interaction partner. Findings indicated that intergroup E-contact resulted in less intergroup anxiety compared to an intragroup interaction, and that this effect was more pronounced when the bisexual interaction partner was male for heterosexual men, but not for heterosexual women. Although E-contact had no direct effect on tolerance toward bisexual individuals or the perceived stability of bisexuality as a sexual orientation, findings revealed that reduced intergroup anxiety mediated the effect of E-contact on these outcome variables. This result was found in the intergroup dynamic of heterosexual men interacting with bisexual men, providing an important experimental demonstration of the potential for harnessing an E-contact intervention to reduce affective prejudice toward bisexual individuals.

摘要

双性恋者是隐形的性少数群体，他们面临来自异性恋和性少数群体的偏见和“双重歧视”。尽管如此，很少有实证研究检验双性恋偏见的减少情况。为了解决这个问题，当前的研究测试了一种电子接触干预——一种高度结构化、基于文本的在线互动工具——以减少双性恋偏见。异性恋参与者 ( N= 170) 被随机分配到组间（电子接触）或组内（控制）互动，与男性或女性互动伙伴。研究结果表明，与群内互动相比，群际电子接触导致的群际焦虑较少，并且当双性恋互动伙伴是男性时，这种影响对于异性恋男性更为明显，但对于异性恋女性则不然。尽管电子接触对双性恋个体的容忍度或双性恋作为性取向的感知稳定性没有直接影响，但研究结果表明，减少群际焦虑介导了电子接触对这些结果变量的影响。这个结果是在异性恋男性与双性恋男性互动的群际动态中发现的，