Predictors Of Anti-Transgender Attitudes: Identity-Confusion And Deception As Aspects Of Distrust

Drawing upon the sociofunctional approach to prejudice, three studies examined distrust as a predictor of attitudes toward transgender individuals relative to sexual minorities (primarily gay men), focusing on two possible mediators: perceived deception and identity-confusion. Participants expressed more negative attitudes and greater distrust toward transgender individuals than gay men, and these effects were driven by perceived deception but not identity-confusion. Importantly, prejudice, distrust, and perceived deception were more pronounced toward transgender women (i.e., assigned male at birth but identify as female) than transgender men (i.e., assigned female at birth but identify as male; Study 2). In Study 3, transgender individuals were viewed as more deceptive than lesbians and bisexual individuals (a group also stereotyped as untrustworthy).