The "Virtual" Panel: A Computerized Model for LGBT Speaker Panels.

Recent societal trends indicate more tolerance for homosexuality, but prejudice remains on college campuses. Speaker panels are commonly used in classrooms as a way to educate students about sexual diversity and decrease negative attitudes toward sexual diversity. The advent of computer delivered instruction presents a unique opportunity to broaden the impact of traditional speaker panels. The current investigation examined the influence of an interactive "virtual" gay and lesbian speaker panel on cognitive, affective, and behavioral homonegativity. Findings suggest the computer-administered panel is lowers homonegativity, particularly for affective experiential homonegativity. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.