Who is perceived as vulnerable? The role of gender conformity cues and explicit sexual orientation

A substantial proportion of gay men report experiencing everyday harassment, raising questions about how observers interpret victimizing situations. Understanding these patterns requires examining how intersecting social categories shape perceptions of vulnerability, and how vulnerability is related to victim blaming. We investigated how minimal behavioural cues of gender conformity and explicitly disclosed sexual orientation jointly influence vulnerability-related impressions. In Studies 1a/b (N = 248), gender non-conforming targets were consistently perceived as more vulnerable and more susceptible to victimization. Studies 2a/b (N = 452) replicated these effects, while we found no significant effects of explicit sexual orientation on impressions of vulnerability and victimization susceptibility and no significant interactions with gender conformity. These findings highlight the consistent role of behavioural cues of gender conformity in shaping vulnerability-related impressions when intersecting identity information is available. Moreover, perceived vulnerability was positively associated with both direct and indirect victim blaming, which suggests that vulnerability-related impressions, rather than identity cues alone, are relevant to blame-related judgements. Together, the results highlight how different sources of intersecting identity information are weighted when forming impressions of victimization and evaluating victims.