Heteronormativity and the Mismatch Effect: The Role of Context in the Processing of Schema Incongruent Information

Readers have been shown to slowdown when information is presented that is incongruent with dominant sexuality schemas (i.e. homosexual). Specifically, slower reading times would occur when the character within the reading is male and homosexual rather than when the character was male and heterosexual. This slowdown effect has been deemed the mismatch-cost. Previous experiments have shown that context can mediate the mismatch cost for gender and role schemas. In our experiment, homosexual characters are contrasted with heterosexual main characters with or without paragraph context that disambiguates the sexuality of the main character. Two theories that attempt to account for contextual influence on reading are examined. An alternate theory is proposed for homosexual male characters, which argues that a link is made between the focal concept (i.e. John and his husband) and the schematic trace which assumes heterosexuality. There is no evidence that this link can be overridden by prior discourse. Furthermore, no resultant mismatch was found for female homosexual characters. The lack of an effect for female homosexual characters may be reflective of a greater acceptance of lesbianism that of male homosexuality.