Perceptions of male homosexuality: An application of social identity theory.

Examined, in 134 male undergraduates, the impact of homosexual and heterosexual labels and trait information on perceptions of males under different conditions of salience of the intergroup distinction. When a male target was labeled heterosexual he was liked more if he possessed homosexual than heterosexual attributes. Moreover, liking for the homosexual was significantly less in the homosexual than the heterosexual label condition. The attractiveness of various traits in males is dependent on how the perceiver categorizes the target and that when group membership is salient an outgroup member displaying in-group attributes may pose a threat to in-group distinctiveness