Religiosity and Homonegativism: A Path-Analytic Study

Abstract

Religiosity has been shown to be related to negative attitudes toward homosexuals. We hypothesized that the dimension of ethical conservatism is the major intervening variable that links religiosity to homonegativity. Other variables hypothesized to predict homonegativity included respondents' sex, sexual preference, belief about the amount of choice in sexual orientation, and number of gay friends. A path model of these relationships was proposed and was tested on college students who responded to items measuring the variables in the model. Regression analyses supported the hypothesis that religiosity predicted ethical conservatism, which in turn predicted homonegativity. The model accounted for 50% of the variability in the homonegativity items. These findings indicate that homonegativism does not necessarily stem from irrational fear or repression of homosexual desires but that it can be related to a generally conservative position on questions of personal morality.