Reply #14: Study: Gay panic is real [View All]

[arwalden]

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?id=3036&sd=02/09/02-02/11/02

When heterosexual males are made to feel insecure about their masculinity, some may respond by increasing their hostility toward gay men, new research suggests. The recent findings may point to the psychological roots of homophobia and gay bashing, explains researcher Richard H. Gramzow of Northeastern University in Boston. "Men with a threatened male ego may be typically more hostile toward gay men," he said, "and that could eventually translate into more aggressive behaviors."

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Seeking to determine the factors that drive prejudice, Gramzow had 60 male and female college undergraduates complete questionnaires measuring their individual sense of masculinity and/or femininity. The questionnaire included a list of personality traits such as "assertive," "nurturing," and "power-oriented." Students were asked "whether they saw that trait as being characteristic of themselves," Gramzow noted. At the same time, the study participants were also asked their views regarding gay men and lesbians. Analyzing the results, the Boston researcher found that among men, "the higher the endorsement of masculine personality traits for the self, the higher the negativity toward gay men" and, to a lesser extent, lesbians. (Emphasis is mine.) In contrast, there was only a mild correlation between a woman's identification with her gender and her attitudes toward gay men or lesbians.

Armed with these findings, Gramzow then tested what might happen when men felt that their sense of masculinity was under threat. In a second study he passed out bogus questionnaires aimed at generating fictional "personality profiles." As in the first experiment, participants were asked their views on lesbians and gays. In a completely random fashion, Gramzow told half the students that their personality profiles had tested high on "masculine" traits, while the other half were told they scored higher in "feminine" traits. The result? "Male respondents who received feminine personality feedback subsequently reported extremely negative attitudes toward gay men," Gramzow reports, although their attitudes toward lesbians remained unchanged. Women who had received masculine personality feedback showed no increase in hostility toward either lesbians or gay men, he noted. The bottom line, according to Gramzow, is that "heterosexual males appear to express antipathy toward gay men as a way to express their masculinity."