There are sharp U.S. political differences in transgender attitudes, with liberals expressing much more favorable attitudes and support for trans-inclusive policies than conservatives. Transgender attitudes likely contribute to numerous public policies that are being passed or considered, including policies that impact transgender health, safety, and well-being. Thus, it is imperative to understand why vast partisan differences in transgender attitudes occur. Here we present two preregistered studies examining whether transgender knowledge (i.e., knowledge about transgender identities, experiences, causes, and health care) differs in Democrats versus Republicans, and whether knowledge mediates political differences in attitudes and policy support (N = 439, Prolific). Participants completed a transgender quiz, followed by measures of transgender prejudice and support for trans-inclusive policies. Democrats had superior transgender knowledge compared to Republicans (ds > 1.39). Further, as predicted, transgender knowledge significantly mediated political differences in transgender prejudice and policy support. Exploratory analyses found that the predicted mediation effects held when knowledge was operationalized in different ways and after adjusting for demographic covariates. These data suggest that knowledge gaps help to explain political differences in transgender attitudes and may stimulate additional work on how to improve such knowledge.

美国在跨性别者的态度上存在着尖锐的政治差异，自由派对跨性别包容性政策的态度和支持比保守派要好得多。跨性别者的态度可能有助于许多正在通过或考虑的公共政策，包括影响跨性别者健康、安全和福祉的政策。因此，必须了解为什么跨性别态度会出现巨大的党派差异。在这里，我们提出了两项预先注册的研究，研究了民主党人和共和党人的跨性别知识（即关于跨性别身份、经历、原因和医疗保健的知识）是否不同，以及知识是否中介了态度和政策支持的政治差异（N = 439，多产）。参与者完成了一项跨性别测验，然后是跨性别偏见和对跨性别包容性政策支持的衡量标准。与共和党人相比，民主党人拥有更优越的跨性别知识 （ds > 1.39）。此外，正如预测的那样，跨性别知识显着介导了跨性别偏见和政策支持的政治差异。探索性分析发现，当知识以不同的方式操作并在调整人口统计协变量后，预测的中介效应成立。这些数据表明，知识差距有助于解释跨性别者态度的政治差异，并可能激发关于如何改善此类知识的更多工作。