Explaining Public Opinion toward Transgender People, Rights, and Candidates

Philip Edward Jones · Paul R. Brewer · Dannagal Goldthwaite Young · Lindsay H. Hoffman

116 citations0/0 files storedPublic Opinion Quarterly

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy Electoral Systems and Political Participation Gender and Feminist Studies

Abstract

What explains public opinion toward transgender people, rights, and candidates? Drawing on original data from a national telephone survey of US adults, this study explains attitudes regarding (1) the personal characteristics of transgender people; (2) a variety of transgender rights; and (3) transgender candidates for public office, measured through a randomized experiment included in the survey. Results indicate majority support on most policy questions, but more tepid views of transgender people, and solid opposition to supporting a transgender candidate for office. Our analyses reflect and extend previous research on American public opinion. Respondents’ fundamental values (egalitarianism, moral traditionalism, party identity, ideology, and religiosity) and personality characteristics (need for cognitive closure) predict views of transgender people and support for their rights. A significant relationship also emerged between television use and views of transgender people, suggesting that media portrayals may play a role in shaping these perceptions. In contrast, there is no evidence that interpersonal contact with a transgender person is related to opinions. Further, many of these independent variables have little moderating effect on responses to transgender candidates, which remain negative among most subgroups.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 116 citations exist upstream.

References

1954Nature of Prejudice 2006A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory.1992The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion 2005Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses 1993The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.2003Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.1994Individual differences in need for cognitive closure.1988Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: the Role of Core Beliefs and Values

Cited by

2019The Roles of Political Conservatism and Binary Gender Beliefs in Predicting Prejudices Toward Gay Men and People Who Are Transgender 2018Elite cues and public polarization on transgender rights 2019Gender Identity as a Political Cue: Voter Responses to Transgender Candidates 2022Taking perspective of the stories we tell about transgender rights: The narrative policy framework 2023Gendered Self-Promotion: Differences in How Voters Evaluate Women and Men Who Highlight Their Legislative Accomplishments

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.