GAY MEN REMEMBERED: THE BIASING ROLE OF STEREOTYPES IN MEMORY

Differences in recognition memory among students exposed to a narrative characterizing two men as either straight or gay were investigated. Three-way factorial ANOVAs revealed the influences of sexual orientation of stimuli, cognitive load, and time delay on correct and incorrect, biased memory. Participants who read a gay version of an otherwise neutral narrative incorrectly recognized more biased items than those who read a straight version. Processing capacity and time delay in memory reporting were associated with lower correct recognition scores and higher biased recognition scores. Attitudes about gay men were not associated with differences in memory.