Associations between religious personality dimensions and implicit homosexual prejudice

Personality correlates of implicit and explicit attitudes toward homosexual and heterosexual individuals were examined within a sample of predominantly Protestant college students in the south-central United States. Implicit attitudes were measured with the Implicit Association Test, a computer program that recorded reaction times as participants categorized symbols (of heterosexual individuals and gay men) and adjectives (good or bad words). Participants also completed self-report measures of religious fundamentalism (RF), Christian orthodoxy (CO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), impression management (IM), and attitudes toward heterosexuals, gay men, and lesbians. Participants displayed fairly negative implicit and explicit attitudes toward homosexual relative to heterosexual individuals. Consistent with previous research, RF, CO, RWA, and IM were associated with increases in self-reported homosexual prejudice. Religious fundamentalism was the strongest predictor of a negative implicit attitude toward gay men relative to heterosexuals. In a classic book on the nature of prejudice, social-personality psychologist Gordon Allport wrote: “The role of religion is paradoxical. It makes and unmakes prejudice. While the creeds of the great religions are universalistic, all stressing brotherhood; the practices of these creeds are frequently divisive and brutal ” (Allport 1954:444). Allport appeared to recognize that most religions encourage an agape love of neighbors; yet, paradoxically some people harbor prejudice