Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study.

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.

Induced gratitude and hope, and experienced fear, but not experienced disgust, facilitate COVID-19 prevention.

Hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust may all be key to encouraging preventative action in the context of COVID-19. We pre-registered a longitudinal experiment, which involved monthly data collections from September 2020 to September 2021 and a six-month follow-up. We predicted that a hope recall task would reduce negative emotions and elicit higher intentions to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours. At the first time point, participants were randomly allocated to a recall task condition (gratitude, hope, or control). At each time point, we measured willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours, as well as experienced hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust. We then conducted a separate, follow-up study in February 2022, to see if the effects replicated when COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed in the UK. In the main study, contrary to our pre-registered hypothesis, we found that a gratitude recall task elicited more willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours in comparison to the neutral recall task. We also found that experienced gratitude, hope, and fear were positively related to preventative action, while disgust was negatively related. These results present advancement of knowledge of the role of specific emotions in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gay Voice: Stable Marker of Sexual Orientation or Flexible Communication Device?

Listeners rely on vocal features when guessing others' sexual orientation. What is less clear is whether speakers modulate their voice to emphasize or to conceal their sexual orientation. We hypothesized that gay individuals adapt their voices to the social context, either emphasizing or disguising their sexual orientation. In Study 1 (n = 20 speakers, n = 383 Italian listeners and n = 373 British listeners), using a simulated conversation paradigm, we found that gay speakers modulated their voices depending on the interlocutor, sounding more gay when speaking to a person with whom they have had an easy (vs. difficult or no) coming out. Although straight speakers were always clearly perceived as heterosexual, their voice perception also varied depending on the interlocutor. Study 2 (n = 14 speakers and n = 309 listeners), comparing the voices of young YouTubers before and after their public coming out, showed a voice modulation as a function of coming out. The voices of gay YouTubers sounded more gay after coming out, whereas those of age-matched straight control male speakers sounded increasingly heterosexual over time. Combining experimental and archival methods, this research suggests that gay speakers modulate their voices flexibly depending on their relation with the interlocutor and as a consequence of their public coming out.

Gay- and Lesbian-Sounding Auditory Cues Elicit Stereotyping and Discrimination.

The growing body of literature on the recognition of sexual orientation from voice ("auditory gaydar") is silent on the cognitive and social consequences of having a gay-/lesbian- versus heterosexual-sounding voice. We investigated this issue in four studies (overall N = 276), conducted in Italian language, in which heterosexual listeners were exposed to single-sentence voice samples of gay/lesbian and heterosexual speakers. In all four studies, listeners were found to make gender-typical inferences about traits and preferences of heterosexual speakers, but gender-atypical inferences about those of gay or lesbian speakers. Behavioral intention measures showed that listeners considered lesbian and gay speakers as less suitable for a leadership position, and male (but not female) listeners took distance from gay speakers. Together, this research demonstrates that having a gay/lesbian rather than heterosexual-sounding voice has tangible consequences for stereotyping and discrimination.

Does body positivity work for men as it does for women? The impact of idealized body and body positive imagery on body satisfaction, drive for thinness, and drive for muscularity.

Exposure to body-positive imagery plays a positive role in women's body image. However, literature has not examined if this is the case for men too. In this study (N = 207), we examined the impact of idealized body and body-positive imagery on both men's and women's body satisfaction and body image concerns. Participants were asked to report their positive and negative mood, body satisfaction, drive for thinness, and drive for muscularity before and after being exposed to either control (landscapes and animals), idealized body, or body-positive imagery. Results showed that women were overall more dissatisfied with their bodies and reported a stronger negative mood and a higher drive for thinness than men. Men, instead, reported a higher drive for muscularity. Exposure to idealized body imagery decreased positive mood and body satisfaction in both men and women. In contrast, exposure to body-positive imagery increased body satisfaction and decreased the drive for thinness in both men and women. Drive for muscularity was not affected by the type of imagery. The findings show that idealized body and body-positive imagery have similar effects on men and women and showcase the importance of considering the effects of body-positivity content for both genders.

Can agentic messages help? Linguistic strategies to counteract voice-based sexual orientation discrimination.

Gay men who believe to sound 'gay' expect to be discriminated against because of their voices and gay-sounding men are discriminated against in the hiring process. We examined whether uttering an agency-based message decreased discrimination expectancy and enactment. In Study 1a (N = 256; gay and bisexual men) and Study 1b (N = 216; gay men), speakers uttered agentic (vs. neutral) messages. We assessed their self-perception as gay sounding, agency self-attribution and discrimination expectancy. Uttering agentic (vs. neutral) messages made the speakers self-perceive as more agentic and this decreased discrimination expectancy. Additionally, self-perception as gay sounding predicted discrimination expectancy. In Study 2 (N = 466), heterosexual participants listened to gay- and straight-sounding speakers uttering either neutral or agentic messages and rated them in terms of agency and employability. Gay-sounding speakers uttering agentic messages were less likely to be discriminated against than when uttering neutral messages. Results show the positive impact of linguistic strategies involving agentic messages to reduce discrimination expectancy and hiring biases.

Sounds Like There was No Sexual Orientation Discrimination? Attributions to Discrimination on the Basis of Auditory Gaydar.

Auditory gaydar happens when people's heterosexuality is called into question by their vocal characteristics. Auditory gaydar has been shown to prompt discrimination against both women and men interviewing for leadership positions. Two experiments tested whether attributional ambiguity makes auditory gaydar discrimination difficult to detect in such contexts. Either heterosexual participants (Study 1, n = 161) or heterosexual and sexual minority participants (Study 2, n = 238) heard short clips of straight- vs. lesbian/gay-sounding speakers, described as unsuccessful applicants for leadership positions. Participants explained the speakers' unsuccessful outcome in their own words and rated the likelihood that gender and sexual orientation discrimination caused that outcome. Attributions to gender discrimination were common whilst attributions to sexual prejudice were vanishingly rare. Women targets were rated more likely to have experienced gender discrimination, and lesbian/gay-sounding targets were rated more likely to have experienced sexual orientation discrimination by some participants (Study 1) or all participants (Study 2). We conclude that auditory gaydar may prompt discriminatory treatment in leadership hiring processes more readily than in prompts the recognition that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has occurred.

Who Has a Better Auditory Gaydar? Sexual Orientation Categorization by Heterosexual and Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people are supposed to be better at gaydar than heterosexual. Across two studies we examined auditory gaydar performed by LGB and heterosexual listeners. In Study 1 participants (n = 127) listened to male and female speakers (n = 10) and judged their sexual orientation on a binary choice (gay/lesbian vs. heterosexual). In Study 2, participants (n = 192) judged speakers' (n = 31) sexual orientation on a Kinsey-like scale (1 = exclusively heterosexual, 7 = exclusively gay/lesbian). Results showed gaydar judgments differences in relative terms that did not indicate an overall gaydar accuracy. Moreover, LGB participants were not better at gaydar than heterosexual participants but rather showed a shift in criterion when making auditory gaydar judgments, namely they report a weaker straight categorization bias. Overall, these findings contribute to the understanding of sexual orientation categorization among heterosexual majority and LGB minority groups.

Body Positivity or Humorous Parody? The Impact of Instagram Imagery on Body Image Concerns.

Research has shown that Instagram imagery can affect women's body image. However, it remains unclear how Instagram images are perceived, and which type of images can have a positive impact on body image. In this study (N = 170), we examined whether exposure to body positive and humorous parody (vs. body ideal) imagery would be perceived as critiques of thin body ideals, would elicit photo-based activity in the form of "likes", and would positively affect women's body image. Results showed that both body positivity and humorous parody images elicited more "likes" and were perceived as critiquing thin body standards more than body ideal images. Moreover, women's body satisfaction and positive mood were higher after exposure to body positivity and humorous parody compared to exposure to body ideal images. Women exposed to humorous parody also reported a lower drive for thinness. These findings demonstrate that both body positivity and humorous parody can be considered critiques that improve body image.

Political orientation, trust and discriminatory beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from the United Kingdom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world in many ways; for example, evidence from the United Kingdom indicates that higher rates of discriminatory behaviours against immigrants have been recorded during this period. Prior research suggests that political orientation and trust are instrumental in discriminatory beliefs against immigrants. A longitudinal study (six waves and a follow-up) was conducted in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic (September 2020-August 2021) using convenience sampling (N = 383). The hypotheses enquired about whether political orientation predicts trust in government, trust in science and discriminatory beliefs. Multilevel regression and mediation analyses were conducted, using repeated measures nested within individuals. It was found that conservative views are associated with higher discriminatory beliefs, lower trust in science and higher trust in government. Furthermore, trust in science promotes reduction of discrimination, whereas trust in government, increases discriminatory beliefs. However, a nuance revealed by an interaction effect, shows that a positive alignment between political and scientific authorities may be required to reduce prejudice against immigrants. Exploratory multilevel mediation showed that trust is a mediator between political orientation and discriminatory beliefs.

#SexyBodyPositive: When Sexualization Does Not Undermine Young Women's Body Image.

Research suggests that exposure to social networking sites portraying a thin and often sexualized beauty ideal reduces young women's body satisfaction, while exposure to body-positive content improves it. However, it is unclear whether sexualization could impair the beneficial effects of body-positivity messages. Young Italian women were exposed to one of three experimental conditions showing sexualized beauty ideals, sexualized body positivity, or non-sexualized body positivity that appeared either on Instagram (Study 1, N = 356) or TikTok (Study 2, N = 316). Across the two studies, results showed that, regardless of sexualization, exposure to body positivity increased body satisfaction and positive mood compared with pre-exposure measures, while exposure to sexualized beauty ideals reduced it. Participants in the sexualized beauty ideal condition also engaged in upward appearance social comparison whereas body positivity elicited downward comparison. Problematic social networking sites' use moderated the effects of condition on body satisfaction, appearance social comparison, and positive mood, while downward comparison mediated the relation between condition and body satisfaction and positive mood. Our results highlight both beneficial and critical aspects of body positivity that should be taken into consideration when designing body image interventions and policymaking.

Cross-modal impression updating: Dynamic impression updating from face to voice and the other way around.

Research has shown that faces and voices shape impression formation. Most studies have examined either the impact of faces and voices in isolation or the relative contribution of each source when presented simultaneously. However, only a few studies have questioned whether and how impressions formed via one source can be updated due to incremental information gathered from the alternative source. Yet, cross-modal impression updating is key to shed light on person perception. Thus, we tested whether positive and negative face- and voice-based impressions could be updated by inconsistent cross-modal information. In Experiment 1 (N = 130), we tested whether face-based impressions could be updated by (in)consistent voices. In Experiment 2 (N = 262), we compared face-to-voice and voice-to-face impression updating. In Experiment 3 (N = 242), we favoured a more direct comparison of the two types of stimuli (i.e., the co-occurrence of both cue types when the new information is revealed). Results showed that voices have the greatest updating impact and that the updating effect of faces was halved when voices co-occurred for a second time. We discussed these results as evidence of the dynamical evolution of cross-modal impressions.

Stigmatization of 'gay-sounding' voices: The role of heterosexual, lesbian, and gay individuals' essentialist beliefs.

Voice-based sexual orientation (SO) judgements can prompt group-based discrimination. However, the relationships between stigmatization and essentialist beliefs about vocal cues to SO have not been researched. Two studies examined heterosexuals' and gay men's and lesbian women's essentialist beliefs about voice as a cue of SO to uncover essentialist beliefs' role in the perpetration and experience of stigma. In Study 1 (N = 363), heterosexual participants believed voice was a better cue to SO for men than for women, and participants' belief in the discreteness, immutability, and controllability of 'gay-sounding' voices was correlated with higher avoidant discrimination towards gay-sounding men. In Study 2 (N = 147), endorsement of essentialist beliefs about voice as a SO cue was associated with self-perceptions of sounding gay amongst gay men and lesbians. Sexual minority participants, especially gay men, who believed that they sounded gay reported more anticipation of rejection and engaged in vigilance in response. Essentialist beliefs about vocal cues to SO are relevant to explaining both the perpetration of stigma by heterosexuals and the experience of stigma for lesbians and gay men.

The Impact of Stimuli Length and Analytic Method on Auditory 'Gaydar' Research.

This research investigates voice-based categorization of speakers' sexual orientation, the so-called 'auditory gaydar', while considering stimuli length and the type of measures assessing gaydar judgments. In Study 1 (N = 80), heterosexual individuals listened to gay and heterosexual male speakers in short (single word), medium (single sentence), or long (two sentences) recordings. Next, they guess the speakers' sexual orientation on a Kinsey-like and binary choice. Participants were overall inaccurate in recognizing gay speakers when gaydar judgments were provided on a binary choice. Gay speakers were rated as more gay on a Kinsey-like scale than their heterosexual counterparts, but only when short and medium recordings were listened to. Study 2 (N = 149) examined gaydar accuracy for both male and female speakers by using the same procedure. Gaydar judgments were overall inaccurate for gay and lesbian speakers. For male speakers, a difference between the perceived sexual orientation of gay and heterosexual speakers emerged when stimuli were long. For female speakers, such a difference occurred only in the short and medium recording conditions. Study 3 (N = 137) examined gaydar judgments for male and female speakers when stimuli length was manipulated as the number of words progressively presented in a sentence: short (article), medium (article + first word), long (sentence) stimulus. Overall, gaydar judgments were inaccurate. Gay and lesbian (vs. heterosexual) speakers tended to be rated as more gay on the Kinsey-like scale in the medium stimulus condition. These findings suggest that gaydar judgments can be influenced by the type of measure and stimuli.

Instagram Sexualization: When posts make you feel dissatisfied and wanting to change your body.

Instagram is a visually centered social media that involves the presence of sexualized imagery posted by users. Such Instagram sexualization may have a negative impact on women's body image. The present study examined whether exposure to Instagram sexualization, namely posts of sexualized women along with appearance-related comments, affected women's body satisfaction and cosmetic surgery intentions. In doing so, it also considered the moderating role of Instagram Addiction Proclivity (IAP). Young Italian female participants (N = 247) were randomly exposed to one of four video conditions resulting from the combination of either sexualized or non-sexualized women's pictures on Instagram, paired with appearance or neutral comments. In the sexualized picture condition participants' body dissatisfaction increased compared to pre-exposure levels and to the non-sexualized picture condition. The type of comments did not affect participants' body satisfaction. Moreover, IAP predicted cosmetic surgery intentions and moderated their reactions to Instagram content. Indeed, the higher the IAP, the higher the cosmetic surgery intentions of participants viewing sexualized pictures with neutral comments and non-sexualized pictures with body appearance comments. These findings suggest that female Instagram users should be aware of the negative impacts of viewing sexualized imagery as well as the role that IAP may play.

Auditory Gaydar: Perception of Sexual Orientation Based on Female Voice.

We investigated auditory gaydar (i.e., the ability to recognize sexual orientation) in female speakers, addressing three related issues: whether auditory gaydar is (1) accurate, (2) language-dependent (i.e., occurs only in some languages, but not in others), and (3) ingroup-specific (i.e., occurs only when listeners judge speakers of their own language, but not when they judge foreign language speakers). In three experiments, we asked Italian, Portuguese, and German participants (total N = 466) to listen to voices of Italian, Portuguese, and German women, and to rate their sexual orientation. Our results showed that auditory gaydar was not accurate; listeners were not able to identify speakers' sexual orientation correctly. The same pattern emerged consistently across all three languages and when listeners rated foreign-language speakers.

Stereotypical Disease Inferences From Gay/Lesbian Versus Heterosexual Voices.

Voice is a cue used to categorize speakers as members of social groups, including sexual orientation. We investigate the consequences of such voice-based categorization, showing that people infer stereotype-congruent disease likelihood on the basis of vocal information and without explicit information about the speaker's sexual orientation. Study 1 and Study 2 reveal that participants attribute diseases to gay/lesbian and heterosexual men and women in line with stereotypes. Gay speakers were more likely to be associated with gay and female diseases, and lesbian speakers with male diseases. These findings demonstrate that likelihood to suffer from diseases is erroneously, but stereotypically, inferred from targets' vocal information.

The (Female) Graduate: Choice and Consequences of Women's Clothing.

This research investigates how female students choose their graduation outfit and how clothing affects observers' judgments. In Study 1, we manipulated the students' graduation outfit so as to look professional or sexy. Female peers, adults, and professors formed a first impression about the students, their thesis work and guessed their graduation scores (thesis points and final mark). All participant groups judged the professionally dressed students as more competent, as having put more effort in their thesis, and as having obtained better scores than when the same students dressed sexy. In Studies 2 and 3 we replicated previous findings by using photos portraying real students in their actual graduation outfits. We found that sexy clothing, considered inappropriate for the occasion, affected estimated and actual graduation scores negatively and that this effect was mediated by perceived incompetence. Results are discussed with respect to women's evaluation on the basis of their appearance.