Article
City
Ann Arbor, MI
Publication Date
January 2025
Journal/Book Title/Conference
LGBTQ+ Public Opinion: The United States in Global Context
Volume
Forthcoming
Abstract
The LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. has long suffered from collective stigmatization and discrimination. At the same time, there have been calls for increased social acceptance, more legal protections, and better political representation of LGBTQ+ people. An essential ingredient for such calls for change has been a rise in support from outgroup allies. However, what moves members of the public to support LGBTQ+ citizens? In this chapter, we explore how group empathy as a general disposition may serve as a primary driver of positive attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. Employing 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES) data, we find individuals with high empathy for outgroups are more likely to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ population. Specifically, group empathy translates into pro-LGBTQ+ stances, including support for: (1) permitting same-sex marriage and allowing LGBTQ+ couples to legally adopt children, (2) standing against businesses that deny service to LGBTQ+ customers, (3) allowing transgender people to use restrooms of their identified gender and serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, (4) having more lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people elected to political office, and (5) enacting laws that protect members of the LGBTQ+ community against job discrimination. Across all of these instances, our results demonstrate that the effect of group empathy on pro-LGBTQ+ attitudes is strong (and at times is the strongest driver) even after controlling for key political and socio-economic factors that have been linked to such attitudes. In light of these findings, we posit that attitudinal trends motivated by empathy for outgroups can help pave the way for more substantial sociopolitical changes in support of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
Editor
Mandi Bates Bailey, Steven Nawara, and Andrew Flores
Publisher
University of Michigan Press
Included in
Leadership Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, Psychology Commons, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Social Justice Commons