Presence of gay men in mainstream media may have a positive impact on viewers’ attitude change. However, gay male characters are often stereotypically portrayed as feminine, and no research has yet explored audiences’ reactions to counter-stereotypical gay characters. Heterosexual Italian men (N = 158) were exposed to a clip portraying (i) a stereotypical feminine gay male character, (ii) a counter-stereotypical masculine gay male character, or (iii) a nature documentary. Compared to the other conditions, exposure to the counter-stereotypical gay character increased discrimination toward gay men, in the form of anti-gay jokes, the higher the level of participants’ prejudice against gay men. Results further demonstrated that this effect was explained by reduced perceived stereotypicality of the character. Findings are in line with the social identity theory prediction that when gay men (outgroup) are perceived as too similar, and potentially threaten the group identity, heterosexual men would attempt to restore ingroup distinctiveness.

主流媒体中出现男同性恋者可能会对观众的态度转变产生积极影响。然而，男同性恋角色通常被刻板地描绘成女性，目前还没有研究探讨观众对反刻板印象的男同性恋角色的反应。异性恋意大利男人（N= 158) 被暴露在一段剪辑中，该剪辑描绘了 (i) 一个刻板的女性男同性恋角色，(ii) 一个反刻板的男性男同性恋角色，或 (iii) 一部自然纪录片。与其他条件相比，暴露于反刻板的同性恋角色会增加对男同性恋的歧视，以反同性恋笑话的形式，参与者对男同性恋的偏见程度越高。结果进一步表明，这种效果可以通过减少对角色的感知刻板印象来解释。研究结果与社会认同理论的预测一致，即当男同性恋者（外群）被认为过于相似并可能威胁到群体认同时，异性恋男性会试图恢复内群独特性。