The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a “gay-sounding” voice on heterosexual music teachers’ perceptions of music teaching effectiveness. Music teachers across the United States ( N = 575) listened to two men between the ages of 18 and 25 years old with stereotypically gay and straight voices, respectively, reading a short paragraph. After hearing each speaker in counterbalanced order, participants rated the likelihood of each speaker’s ability to demonstrate top skills and behaviors associated with effective teaching using a 4-point Likert-type scale. Listeners rated the gay voice higher on measures of maintaining high musical standards and organization; they rated the straight voice higher on measures of leadership, classroom management, and maturity. Strategies to combat these stereotypes are discussed.
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Taylor et al. (2020) studied this question.
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