Bettinsoli, Maria Laura, Alexandra Suppes, and Jaime L. Napier. "Predictors of Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbian Women in 23 Countries." Social Psychological and Personality Science (2019): 1948550619887785.
Abstract
Dominant accounts of sexual prejudice posit that negative attitudes toward nonheterosexual individuals are stronger for male (vs. female) targets, higher among men (vs. women), and driven, in part, by the perception that gay men and lesbian women violate traditional gender norms. We test these predictions in 23 countries, representing both Western and non-Western societies. Results show that (1) gay men are disliked more than lesbian women across all countries; (2) after adjusting for endorsement of traditional gender norms, the relationship between participant gender and sexual prejudice is inconsistent across Western countries, but men (vs. women) in non-Western countries consistently report more negative attitudes toward gay men; and (3) a significant association between gender norm endorsement and sexual prejudice across countries, but it was absent or reversed in China, India, and South Korea. Taken together, this work suggests that gender and sexuality may be more loosely associated in some non-Western contexts.
Using data from 23 countries, we examine how both gender and beliefs about gender norms relate to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Specifically, we test three findings from past research (generally referring to Western populations) and examine whether they replicate across countries, namely, that (1) attitudes about gay men (vs. lesbian women) are more negative, (2) men (vs. women) are more prejudice against sexual minorities, and (3) endorsement of traditional gender norms is positively associated with sexual prejudice.
Cross-national investigations of sexual prejudice generally rely on large-scale surveys, and the questions asked in these surveys may fail to capture cross-cultural nuances. In particular, the labels describing sexual minorities (i.e., “homosexual”; “gay”) may be confounded in many cultural contexts (Haddad, 2016). These labels could also be interpreted as mainly referring to men (Kite & Whitley, 1998; MacDonald & Games, 1974). In commissioning our own survey, we were able to avoid potentially derogatory labels and to assess attitudes toward non-heterosexual men and women separately, allowing us to test whether prejudice varies as function of target gender.