Religiosity and Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men: A Meta-Analysis

TLDR

A meta‑analysis examined how seven forms of religiosity relate to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. The study aggregated data across studies to evaluate these relationships. All religiosity forms except quest and extrinsic orientation were weakly negatively associated with attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, while quest orientation predicted positive attitudes and extrinsic orientation had no effect, and most religiosity forms were weakly positively related to racial/ethnic attitudes, except fundamentalism and extrinsic orientation, which were slightly negative.

Abstract

Meta-analysis was used to examine the relationships between seven forms of religiosity (fundamentalism; frequency of attendance at religious services; endorsement of Christian orthodoxy; self-ratings of religiosity; and intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest orientations) and attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. All forms of religiosity except quest and extrinsic orientation had at least small negative relationships with these attitudes. Higher quest orientation was related to positive attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and extrinsic orientation had no relationship to these attitudes. In contrast, most forms of religiosity had small relationships with positive racial/ethnic attitudes; the exceptions were fundamentalism and extrinsic orientation, which had small negative relationships with racial/ethnic attitudes. A number of moderator variables of the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were identified.