Unlike other groups that face prejudice, homosexual men and women usually have the option to conceal their sexuality from the people they interact with at work.
Researchers David Buckley and Ashby Plant have investigated if the timely of the 'coming out' affects the nature of the interaction?
A group of 45 hetrosexual men and women participated in what they were told was an investigation into first-time social interactions.
The test involved them listening alone to an eight minute taped interview with a man who they expected to meet afterwards.
During the interview the man was asked about his relationship status. half of the participants in the study heard him asked this at the start of the interview and others right at the end. His answer to this question he identified himself as homosexual.
If the male participants in the study heard the disclosure at the start of the meeting they were more likely to express negative feelings about the prospect of meeting the man, and hwo they felt the meeting might go than the men who listened to the tapes in which the disclosure was made at the end of the interview.
Ina second study involving 85 participants the the results were very similar, but this time the interview was shown as a video recording rather than just sound.
For the male participants in the study the timing of the 'coming out' statement made a big difference - an early disclosure led the male participants to feel more negative about the man, to show more hostility toward him and to attribute him with more gay stereotype traits.
In fact, the stereotyping mediated the effect of early/late disclosure on all the other factors.
A report of the research in the British Psychological Digest described the message as being clear
'An early disclosure coloured the male participants' perception of the remainder of the interview, rousing their prejudices towards the man. By contrast, male participants who heard the late disclosure appeared to form a non-stereotyped view of the man, thus reducing their prejudice and hostility even after he disclosed his gay status. In contrast to these effects, timing of disclosure made no difference to perceptions of the man in the condition in which he revealed himself to be heterosexual.
Buck and Plant described their research as showing that homosexual men should hold back coming out to colleagues if they want to avoid prejudice.
However, they suggest that understanding the issues that drive prejudice may help to identify the situations in which it is likely to occur, and be able to take actions to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
