How Context Matters: Predicting Men's Homophobic Slang Use

This article reports two experiments exploring heterosexual men's use of homophobic slang in social contexts varied by sex ratio. Study 1 (N = 127) experimentally demonstrated that compared with a mixed-sex audience, heterosexual men with an all-male audience reported higher levels of hetero-identity concern (HIC) and more homophobic slang use. These men had similar levels of HIC compared with men with an all-female audience. Study 2 replicated Study 1's mean difference tests and explored whether the relationship between HIC and homophobic slang was affected by group sex ratio and social norms. Results suggest the relationship between HIC and homophobic slang was significant only in all-male and mixed-sex audiences and the norm of noninterference was associated with homophobic slang only in all-male groups.