The Psychology of Sexual Prejudice

TLDR

Sexual prejudice denotes negative attitudes toward individuals based on sexual orientation, remains widespread in the United States, and is preferred over the term homophobia to avoid value judgments. The article seeks to review the prevalence, psychological correlates, underlying motivations, and connections of sexual prejudice to hate crimes and other anti‑gay behaviors. It accomplishes this by surveying current knowledge in the literature.

Abstract

Sexual prejudice refers to negative attitudes toward an individual because of her or his sexual orientation. In this article, the term is used to characterize heterosexuals' negative attitudes toward (a) homosexual behavior, (b) people with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, and (c) communities of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Sexual prejudice is a preferable term to homophobia because it conveys no assumptions about the motivations underlying negative attitudes, locates the study of attitudes concerning sexual orientation within the broader context of social psychological research on prejudice, and avoids value judgments about such attitudes. Sexual prejudice remains widespread in the United States, although moral condemnation has decreased in the 1990s and opposition to antigay discrimination has increased. The article reviews current knowledge about the prevalence of sexual prejudice, its psychological correlates, its underlying motivations, and its relationship to hate crimes and other antigay behaviors.