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Disgust and disgust-driven moral concerns predict support for restrictions on transgender bathroom access

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

Matthew E. Vanaman Open the ORCID record for Matthew E. Vanaman [Opens in a new window]  and
Hanah A. Chapman
Matthew E. Vanaman*
Affiliation:
CUNY Graduate Center
Hanah A. Chapman
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College
*
Correspondence: Matthew Vanaman, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016; Email: mvanaman@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Abstract

Many U.S. states have proposed policies that restrict bathroom access to an individual’s birth sex. These policies have had widespread effects on safety for transgender and gender-nonconforming people, as well as on state economies. In this registered report, we assessed the role of disgust in support for policies that restrict transgender bathroom access. We found that sensitivity to pathogen disgust was positively associated with support for bathroom restrictions; sexual and injury disgust were unrelated. We also examined the role of disgust-driven moral concerns, known as purity concerns, as well as harm-related moral concerns in support for bathroom restrictions. While concerns about harm to cisgender and transgender people predicted support for bathroom restrictions, purity was a much stronger predictor. Also, purity partially mediated the link between pathogen disgust and support for bathroom restrictions, even after accounting for harm concerns. Findings and implications are discussed.

Keywords

transgender rightsbathroom billspolitical policyemotiondisgustmoral psychologypurityharm
Type
Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 39 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: Disgust and Political Attitudes , Fall 2020 , pp. 200 - 214
Copyright
© Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 2020

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