Derogatory language in intergroup context: Are “gay” and “fag” synonymous?

Although the prevalence of derogatory group labels is well-established, surprisingly little is known about the cognitive and affective consequences that such discriminatory speech has on the listener. The main question addressed in the present chapter is whether terms like African American vs. nigger or homosexual vs. fag are synonymous. Technically, neutral vs. derogatory word pairs are equivalent as they refer to the same object--or in our case, to the same social group; yet they are not equivalent in valence or in social acceptability. This raises the interesting question of whether derogatory terms are semantically interchangeable with neutral category labels, considering that they describe the same object, or whether they produce distinct effects in the listener's mind