Current research

To each their sport: support for trans inclusion and fair play concerns

I am currently working on sport policies and trans discrimination. The idea for this research came from a hunch that maybe with some sporting competition, people get agitated about trans inclusionary policies more often, than in other sports. Following this intuition led me to learning a lot of random facts about sporting competitions, but also to a realization that even people who have negative attitudes towards trans individuals might still show some support for trans inclusionary policies under certain conditions.

After 2024 Olympics I conducted a survey experiment in the US, where I asked participants to share their opinion on a proposed policy that regulates participation of trans athletes. I find that the relationship between trans prejudice and support for inclusion is moderated by considerations related to fairness.

The paper got an R&R in Sexuality Research and Social Policy.

Transgressing sex/gender: how frames affect support for trans inclusion in sports

This research was inspired by the Trump’s executive order and the focus on “sex”-based terms, such as male/female and “sex assigned at birth” instead of terms associated with “gender identity”. Considering that elite framing matters and can influence political attitudes and behaviors, I test whether using “sex”-based frame vs. “gender”-based frame affects one’s support for trans inclusion in sports.

Pre-registration is available on OSF: https://osf.io/26uzm