Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Homosexual Persons, Behaviors, and Civil Rights A Meta-Analysis

TLDR

The study highlights biases in prior research, including sample–measurement confounds and a focus on gay men or unspecified targets. The authors performed a meta‑analysis comparing male and female attitudes toward homosexual persons, behaviors, and civil rights. The meta‑analysis found that men were more negative than women toward homosexual persons and behaviors, but attitudes toward gay civil rights were similar; differences were strongest when the target was a gay man or unspecified, were minimal among nonprofessional adults, and were partly mediated by sex‑role attitudes.

Abstract

Meta-analytic techniques were used to compare men's and women's attitudes toward homosexual persons, homosexual behaviors, and gay people's civil rights. As expected, size of sex differences varied across these categories. Men were more negative than women toward homosexual persons and homosexual behavior, but the sexes viewed gay civil rights similarly. Men's attitudes toward homosexual persons were particularly negative when the person being rated was a gay man or of unspecified sex. Women and men evaluated lesbians similarly. Ratings of homosexual persons and homosexual behavior were least likely to differ by subject sex for samples of nonprofessional adults. In addition, sex role attitude mediated sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuality. Biases in the research literature and areas that deserve further attention, such as the confounding of sample with measurement strategy and the tendency to study gay men or targets of unspecified sex, are discussed.