Judgments of American English Male Talkers Who Are Perceived to Sound Gay or Heterosexual

Prior research (Campbell-Kibler, 2011; Gaudio, 1994) discovered that some personality traits (e.g., emotional and intelligent) are associated with gay male talkers and other traits (e.g., masculine and reserved) are associated with heterosexual male talkers. The present investigation examined additional traits listeners associated with four groups of talkers: gay talkers who were perceived as sounding gay, gay talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual, heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding gay, and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual (Tracy, Bainter, & Satariano, 2015). After hearing a spoken utterance, listeners rated talkers along eight traits: bored, confident, intelligent, mad, old, outgoing, sad, and stuck-up (Tracy & Charlton, 2016). The results demonstrated that the gay and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding gay were rated as being significantly more confident, mad, stuck-up, and outgoing; the gay and heterosexual talkers who were perceived as sounding heterosexual were rated as being significantly more bored, sad, and older. There were no significant rating differences for intelligence. It was concluded that a talker’s perceived sexual orientation, rather than their self-identified sexual orientation, influenced which personality traits listeners associated with them