UCLA Anderson Team Challenges Effectiveness of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Does “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” work? That’s what UCLA Anderson Ph.D. student Benjamin Everly and Associate Professor Margaret Shih wondered. While talking about other things, the discussion came around to this U.S. military policy.

The official DADT policy allowed gay men and women to serve in the military as long as they kept their sexual orientation private.

Everly and Shih found studies that looked into concealing or disclosing one’s identity had an impact on a soldier’s own performance. They also discovered a gap in the literature around how disclosure impacted the soldier’s colleagues.

It was thought that serving alongside openly gay comrades would adversely affect the performance of soldiers.

During the discussion the two imagined multiple impacts and scenarios and that lead them to looking at DADT in more depth. They started a research team to study the issue and write a paper and added another Ph.D. student, Geoffrey Ho.

The research team published the study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. They came to the conclusion that working alongside another person with ambiguous sexual orientation was more detrimental to performance than working alongside someone who was openly gay. This was the opposite of what most proponents of the policy believed. They also concluded that soldier performance was enhanced when that ambiguity was eliminated.

Benjamin_Everlys While working on the research, Everly said the survey results could have gone the other way. “If the results revealed that participants performed worse when they knew they were working with a gay colleague, there would have been further opportunities to find out why and what types of interventions might be needed to increase performance. That would also have been a contribution to the literature,” Everly said.

There were two components to the study.

In the first part, they looked at whether participants working with openly gay partners perform better on a cognitive task than participants working with ambiguously gay partners.

In the second part, they ran the same study, but for a sensory-motor. In both cases, those working with an openly gay partner performed better than those working with the ambiguously gay partner.

The researchers didn’t have access to military personnel, so their subjects were UCLA students. They don’t yet know if these results would be exactly the same for those in active military service. They wondered if there were attitudinal differences between those who chose to attend university and those who chose to enter the military.

To test this, without having access to the military, they measured the heterosexism of the participants. They found no difference in results between those with high and low heterosexism.

Obviously, this would need to be tested with military personnel subjects to determine if the hypothesis holds up. See the Anderson Blog for more details on this research.

Hot this week

Did David Wineland and Serge Haroche Steal Idea For The Nobel Physics Prize?

Dr. Omerbashich says the Royal Swedish Academy is a Crime Scene and he has the proof that Nobel laureates stole his discovery.

New Approaches to Disaster Relief Challenges

Disaster relief has always been a challenge. NASA, Google,...

3 Legitimate Money Making Methods to Supplement Your Income

In a perfect world, when your landlord raises your...

2016 Predictions by World Renowned Medium and Psychic Lindy Baker

World renowned medium and psychic Lindy Baker is interviewed by The Hollywood Sentinel, discussing psychic power, the spirit world, life after death, areas of concern in 2016, and much more.

Digital Coupon Customers Spending More Than Double At Stores

A new study shows that customers who use digital coupons go shopping more for groceries and other household goods more often and spend more on their shopping trips.

With Republicans in Power, Firearms Rights Advocates Push to Reform Gun Laws

Gun Owners of America, a gun rights lobby, joined...

Israel Film Festival (IFF)-June 6, 2025 Prelude Luncheon

While the world antagonizes Israel, currently fighting an existential war, the Israel Film Festival (IFF) proudly held its annual sponsor luncheon.

Unibeam Secures $6M to Replace Vulnerable SMS OTPs with SIM-Based Authentication

In a bold move to redefine digital authentication, Israeli...

Can A Boiler Explode

Boiler explosions sound like something out of a disaster...

Not In Our Backyard Say Illinoisians of a Proposed New Slaughterhouse

Does anything separate rural and urban communities more than...

Native American Celebration in the Shadow of New York Mascot Name-Change Lunacy

On June 1st, 2025, Lotus Music & Dance hosted the 23rd Drums Along the Hudson Pow Wow native american celebration at Inwood Hill Park

Bulk Waste Pickup for Businesses: What to Know Before You Schedule

Managing commercial waste efficiently is a growing priority for...

Related Articles

Popular Categories