THE EFFECTS OF ATTITUDINAL SIMILARITY ON HETEROSEXUAL DISLIKE OF HOMOSEXUALS

The literature on homophobia was reviewed and a case made for a homophobic scale that would discriminate between simple dislike for homosexuality and a strong irrational fear of homosexuality. Homophobia was operationally defined by subjects\u27 scores on two factors: First, an affective factor, a negative attitude toward homosexuals; and second, a belief that homosexuality is learned rather than genetic. The combination of negative attitudes and learned beliefs was proposed to constitute a predisposition to react toward a homosexual as a threatening stimulus for fear of catching homosexuality. Negative reactions to homosexuals were studied by placing subjects in a situation in which they had to interview a confederate who was wearing one of the following lapel buttons: Gay & Proud, Epileptic & Proud, Jesus Saves, or the name of the school. In addition, attitudinal similarity (similar or dissimilar) between subjects and confederate was varied. The dependent variables used in the study were: self-report liking scores, distance from confederate during interview, facial expression during interview, shoulder alignment with confederate, body tilt in relation to confederate, length of interview, and tone of voice during interview. The manipulation of attitude similarity indicated that subjects expressed more liking toward similar than toward dissimilar confederates. The results also indicated that subjects in general expressed greater dislike and negative behaviors to the confederate when he was wearing the Gay & Proud lapel button than when wearing the other three lapel buttons, and homophobic subjects were especially negative toward the homosexual confederate. Contrary to the similarity-attraction paradigm, there was a tendency for homophobic subjects to express less liking toward a similar confederate wearing the Gay & Proud button than to dissimilar ones. Other findings indicated that subjects classified as homophobics by the scale used in this study were not sexually conservative. Suggestions for further research into the areas of religiosity and authoritarianism were made