The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

76 Chapter 3

homosexuality. People who score high on

instrumental traits have more favorable atti-

tudes toward homosexuality, whereas people

who scored high on hypermasculinity (ex-

treme masculinity) have more negative atti-

tudes toward homosexuality (Whitley, 2001).

People who have traditional gender-role atti-

tudes and score high on modern sexism and

benevolent sexism possess the most negative

attitudes toward homosexuality. Again, this is

not surprising because homosexual behavior

is a threat to traditional beliefs about women’s

and men’s roles. Men also are less tolerant of

homosexuality compared to women because

the male gender role is more narrowly defined

than the female gender role. Violation of the

male gender role has more negative conse-

quences because it has a higher status in our

society, so there is more to lose by violating it

(Kite & Whitley, 2003).

Social dominance orientation is also

linked to negative attitudes toward homo-

sexuals (Whitley & Egisdottir, 2000). Social

dominance orientation reflects the desire

for the in-group to dominate and be supe-

rior to the out-group (e.g., It’s okay if some

groups have more of a chance in life than

others). As shown in Figure 3.4, men are

higher than women in social dominance

orientation; social dominance orientation

is related to having more traditional gender-

role beliefs; and traditional gender-role

However, men scored higher than

women on benevolent sexism toward men in

11 of the 16 nations. Why would men endorse

benevolent sexism toward men? Benevolent

sexism toward men portrays a positive view

of men while maintaining their higher status

over women. This is unlike women’s endorse-

ment of benevolent sexism toward women,

which is mixed in its effects—on the one

hand, it reflects a positive view of women, but

on the other hand, it promotes the idea that

women have lower status than men.

Attitudes Toward Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Persons

Homophobia is not an attitude toward

someone based on sex (i.e., sexism); it is an

attitude toward someone based on sexual ori-

entation.Homophobia is a fear of homosexu-

als or a fear of associating with homosexuals.

In terms of demographic variables, males

and non-Whites score higher on homopho-

bia than females and Whites (Osborne &

Wagner, 2007). Men are prejudiced against ho-

mosexuals because homosexuality is a threat

to the norm of heterosexual relationships

in which men are dominant over women

(Hamilton, 2007). Homophobia is most prom-

inent among men during the teen years.

Gender-related traits and gender-role

attitudes are associated with attitudes toward

Male Sex Social DominanceOrientation

Traditional

Gender-Role

Beliefs

Negative

Attitudes

Toward

Homosexuals

FIGURE 3.4 A pathway by which male sex leads to negative attitudes toward

homosexuality.

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