.png){kind=small}
Spring 2018 Clara Mayo Award Winner
Facebook LGBTQ Pictivism: The Effects of Rainbow
Filters on Prejudice and Belonging
Lizbeth Kim
Throughout my research program, I have focused primarily on applied questions pertaining to popular media, stigma and prejudice, and civic engagement. More specifically, my research evaluates the effectiveness of modern-day forms of activism and prejudice interventions as well as their impact on viewers’ attitudes and wellbeing. The Clara Mayo Award is supporting my line of work that examines the effectiveness of a popular online display of LGBTQ allyship—Facebook’s rainbow profile filters.
In recent years, the United States demonstrated notable progress in advancing LGBTQ rights with events like the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage equality, the adoption of LGBTQ workplace protection policies, and greater visibility of LGBTQ people in everyday spaces (e.g., societal leaders, celebrities). Notably, social media sites like Facebook have played a major role in facilitating allyship across communities through pro-LGBTQ rainbow profile filters. Despite its popularity, little is known about how LGBTQ people perceive this behavior in their online networks. I proposed a study to examine LGBTQ viewers’ attitudes toward a lesbian or heterosexual woman's Facebook profile displaying or not displaying a rainbow filter regarding perceived activism, internalized heterosexism, social belonging, and cross-group closeness with heterosexual people.
Research on sexual prejudice interventions chiefly examines heterosexual people’s attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals. Findings collectively suggest that interventions that utilize tools like education, contact with LGBTQ people, and entertainment media can successfully reduce sexual prejudice among heterosexual participants. Further, research on LGBTQ allyship primarily focuses on heterosexual people’s motivations to engage in ally behaviors. Hence, little is known about the effects of contemporary displays of allyship according to LGBTQ perceivers, and the proposed study aims to address this gap by explicating how LGBTQ individuals perceive social media allyship (i.e., rainbow filters).
In a related study, we asked 198 heterosexual undergraduate participants to view a lesbian or heterosexual woman’s Facebook profile displaying or not displaying the rainbow filter. Participants who viewed a woman’s profile displaying the filter perceived her as more politically engaged, yet reported greater feelings of threatened freedom than those who did not see the filter. Further, participants who saw a lesbian woman’s profile reported lower sexual prejudice and perceived her to be more politically engaged compared to those who saw a heterosexual woman. Moreover, the use of a filter by a lesbian woman caused participants to report less hate toward LGBTQ people, more support for modern same-sex rights, and greater closeness to LGBTQ people. Thus, under certain conditions, displaying the filter can positively affect heterosexual viewers’ perceptions of activism and support for LGBTQ people, while also revealing a risk of threatening their sense of freedom. As a follow-up to this investigation, the proposed study extends this examination to LGBTQ perceivers to clarify the role of the filter in influencing LGBTQ viewers’ attitudes and perceptions.
All in all, by elevating sexual minority perspectives, researchers can help give visibility to voices that are traditionally underrepresented in social psychology research. Investigating this online behavior can help inform effective social activism that affirms marginalized identities and promotes cross-group solidarity.