The relationship between anti-gay prejudice and the categorization of sexual orientation

•Accurate judgment of sexual orientation was inversely related to anti-gay bias.•Anti-gay bias was not related to response bias in categorizing sexual orientation.•Italians reporting greater anti-gay bias miscategorized fewer gay faces as straight.•Results were largely consistent across 23 samples in 3 countries over 8 years.

A relatively large literature has demonstrated that sexual orientation can be judged accurately from a variety of minimal cues, including facial appearance. Untested in this work, however, is the influence that individual differences in prejudice against gays and lesbians may exert upon perceivers’ judgments. Here, we report the results of a meta-analysis of 23 unpublished studies testing the relationship between anti-gay bias and the categorization of sexual orientation from faces. Aggregating data from multiple measures of bias using a variety of methods in three different countries over a period of 8 years, we found a small but significant negative relationship between accuracy and prejudice that was homogeneous across the samples tested. Thus, individuals reporting higher levels of anti-gay bias appear to be less accurate judges of sexual orientation.