Putting Prejudice into Perspective: Does Perceived Suitability for Adoption Depend on Sexual Orientation More Than on Other Applicant Features?

Most prejudice studies focus on a single aspect, for instance, sexual prejudice,
overlooking other individual characteristics or multiple minority status (i.e., identity
intersections). As a drawback, this approach could overestimate specific sources of prejudice. We
demonstrated this empirically in the context of the controversial topic of adoption by samegender
couples. In three experiments (total N = 603) we examined the conditions under which
members of the general population rate target adults’ written applications as indicating suitability
for adopting, independently manipulating target sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status
(SES), and age. We found that SES explained as much or more variance in adoption suitability
decisions as sexual orientation; applicant gender influenced those decisions more than applicant
sexual orientation. Younger applicants were also preferred to older ones. Few interactions were
obtained. Mediators of adoption suitability decisions were assumptions about the general wellbeing
of the child, and specific worries concerning the child. Our results suggest that reservations
against adoption by same-gender couples may be overestimated if one focuses exclusively on
sexual orientation.