Identity safety cues in context: Contemporary perspectives on gender, sexuality, and disability disparities

Abstract

My collaborators and I expand knowledge on how identity safety cues can counter social identity threats across 10 studies and a theory article (total N = 4257). We introduce and test a novel identity safety cue and two novel mechanisms that help explain why some identity safety cues are effective, and we examine key boundary conditions and potential negative consequences of well-intentioned attempts to implement identity safety cues. In Part 1, seven studies demonstrate that feedback receptivity, or people in power’s openness to feedback from subordinates, reduces bias concerns about gender, sexual orientation, and disability. These effects occur in part because feedback receptivity increases perceptions of relational leadership. However, when those in power conspicuously ignore feedback given, the beneficial effects of asking for feedback are reversed. In Part 2, three experiments investigate an unintended negative consequence of providing identity-safe spaces: parents, peers, and hypothetical advisors advise women away from male-dominated opportunities and into more gender-balanced alternatives. This biased pattern of advice is mediated by perceptions that women will belong more in a gender-balanced space. Finally, Part 3 introduces and provides initial empirical support for a novel construct, sense of mattering, that helps identify and measure the extent to which members of marginalized groups feel their contributions at work and school are recognized and valued. Sense of mattering may be a crucial mechanism by which some identity safety cues operate and neglecting it could help reveal why some identity safety cue-based interventions fail. A brief introduction and conclusion place this work in conversation with foundational identity safety cues research to identify key metascience best practices and future directions. Together, this dissertation advances a contemporary understanding of identity safety cues in context.