An experimental study of vicarious exposure to heterosexism and its effects on internalized heterosexism-based processes among sexual minority young adults.

Leveraging a novel experimental heterosexism mood induction paradigm, this study tested the effects of vicarious exposure to heterosexism on internalized heterosexism-based processes (i.e., internalized heterosexism, heterosexism-specific rejection sensitivity, and sexual orientation rumination) among a sample of sexual minority young adults. Participants were 101 sexual minority young adults, ages 20-35 (<i>M</i> = 26.46 years old; <i>SD</i> = 3.49), who engaged in recent heavy drinking and were recruited from the community (51.5% female sex assigned at birth; 76.3% cisgender; 51.5% plurisexual; and 42.6% racial and ethnic minorities). They completed three experimental mood induction trials counterbalanced over three laboratory visits on different days: heterosexism stress, general stress, and neutral. Results indicated that the heterosexism stress condition produced more internalized heterosexism, heterosexism-specific rejection sensitivity, and sexual orientation rumination than the general stress and neutral conditions, while controlling for demographic variables and exposure to structural heterosexism during adolescence. These effects were small to medium in their magnitude. Moreover, exploratory analyses indicated that these effects were somewhat larger among participants who resided in states with high structural heterosexism during adolescence. As further specificity, we documented no statistically significant differences between the general stress and neutral conditions. This study provides the first experimental evidence that vicarious exposure to heterosexism elicits internalized heterosexism-specific processes among sexual minority young adults. These novel findings extend and have implications for heterosexism-based stress and stigma models.