Same-Sex Relations
Attitudes of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans toward Gay and Lesbian Service Members
Bonnie Moradi & Laura Miller
Armed Forces & Society, April 2010, Pages 397-419
Abstract:
U.S. policy banning openly gay and lesbian personnel from serving in its military rests on the belief that heterosexual discomfort with lesbian and gay service members in an integrated environment would degrade unit cohesion and readiness. To inform this policy, data from a 2006 survey of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are analyzed in this study. Views of these war veterans are consistent with prior surveys of military personnel showing declining support for the policy: from about 75 percent in 1993 to 40 percent in this survey. Among the demographic and military experience variables analyzed, comfort level with lesbian and gay people was the strongest correlate of attitudes toward the ban. War veterans indicated that the strongest argument against the ban is that sexual orientation is unrelated to job performance and that the strongest argument in favor of the ban is a projected negative impact on unit cohesion. However, analyses of these war veterans' ratings of unit cohesion and readiness revealed that knowing a gay or lesbian unit member is not uniquely associated with cohesion or readiness; instead, the quality of leaders, the quality of equipment, and the quality of training are the critical factors associated with unit cohesion and readiness.
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Magdalena Wojcieszak & Vincent Price
Political Psychology, June 2010, Pages 315-339
Abstract:
This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same-sex marriage, to examine whether exposure to perceived disagreement decreases-as the deliberative theorists hope-or rather increases-as the research on confirmation bias predicts-strongly held predilections. Overall, participants' views towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights remained largely unchanged after deliberating, regardless of the ideological composition of their groups. Consistent with the confirmation bias model, those who strongly opposed same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights prior to the discussions and who perceived that others disagreed with them became even more opposed, and this effect was not a short-term shift. Strong proponents, on the other hand, did not polarize in their views, but instead became slightly less favorable towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights as a result of disagreement. Implications of these findings for deliberation of contentious issues are discussed.
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The Scientific Impotence Excuse: Discounting Belief-Threatening Scientific Abstracts
Geoffrey Munro
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, March 2010, Pages 579-600
Abstract:
The scientific impotence discounting hypothesis predicts that people resist belief-disconfirming scientific evidence by concluding that the topic of study is not amenable to scientific investigation. In 2 studies, participants read a series of brief abstracts that either confirmed or disconfirmed their existing beliefs about a stereotype associated with homosexuality. Relative to those reading belief-confirming evidence, participants reading belief-disconfirming evidence indicated more belief that the topic could not be studied scientifically and more belief that a series of other unrelated topics could not be studied scientifically. Thus, being presented with belief-disconfirming scientific evidence may lead to an erosion of belief in the efficacy of scientific methods.
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Hans Vermeersch, Guy T'sjoen, J.M. Kaufman, J. Vincke & Mieke Van Houtte
Journal of Biosocial Science, July 2010, Pages 463-475
Abstrat:
Although the role of testosterone in the aetiology of social dominance is often suggested, surprisingly few studies have addressed the relationship between sex steroid hormones and dominance as a personality trait. In this paper, the relationship between testosterone and dominance is studied in a sample of adolescent boys and girls, taking into account the moderating role of gender ideology and same-sex peer group orientation. A direct association between free testosterone (FT) and dominance was found in girls but not in boys. In boys, masculine ideology moderated the relationship between FT and dominance, while in girls the relationship between FT and dominance was moderated by same-sex peer group affiliation.
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Prejudiced Behavior Toward Lesbians and Gay Men: A Field Experiment on Everyday Helping
Amy Hendren & Hartmut Blank
Social Psychology, Winter 2009, Pages 234-238
Abstract:
Investigations of prejudice toward lesbians and gay men mostly rely on self-report questionnaires and rarely make use of indirect, behavioral measures. This field experiment investigated helping in an everyday face-to-face situation as an indicator of discrimination. Members of the public (N = 240) were approached by a person asking for 10 pence for a parking meter. The requestor wore either a neutral or a pro-gay T-shirt. Additional independent variables were the requestor's and the target person's gender. Results showed that a person perceived as being a lesbian or a gay man received much less help, especially from men, than the same person perceived as being heterosexual. Findings are discussed in comparison with earlier studies involving either behavioral or self-report measures.
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Amy Schalet
Gender & Society, June 2010, Pages 304-329
Abstract:
In-depth interviews with white middle-class Dutch and American girls demonstrate two important differences in the cultural beliefs and processes that shape their negotiation of heterosexuality. First, Dutch girls are able to integrate their sexual selves into their relationships with their parents, while reconciling sexuality with daughterhood is difficult for the American girls. Second, American girls face adult and peer cultures skeptical about whether teenagers can sustain the feelings and relationships that legitimate sexual activity, while Dutch girls are assumed to be able to fall in love and form steady sexual relationships. This research suggests important differences in institutionalized forms of heterosexuality. It also suggests the significance of girls' relationships, and the cultural perceptions and processes that shape those relationships, for their sexual subjectivity.
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Andrew Whitehead
Social Science Quarterly, March 2010, Pages 63-79
Objective: Past research reveals how religion and opinions about the cause of homosexuality influence attitudes concerning same-sex unions. No study to date contains a comprehensive collection of religion measures while also accounting for views of the cause of homosexuality. Therefore, this study investigates the extent to which religion predicts certain attribution beliefs as well as attitudes toward same-sex unions while controlling for attribution beliefs.
Method: The Baylor Religion Survey (2007) is used to estimate binary logistic models predicting the effects of religion and attribution beliefs on attitudes toward same-sex unions.
Findings: First, religion is strongly associated with the belief that homosexuals choose their sexual orientation. Second, religion maintains a significant association with attitudes toward same-sex unions despite inclusion of an attribution variable.
Conclusion: Even if a biological explanation for homosexuality is ultimately proven, unfavorable attitudes toward same-sex unions will most likely endure due to religion's persistent effect.
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Male faces and bodies: Evidence of a condition-dependent ornament of quality
Bernhard Fink, Kathrin Täschner, Nick Neave, Nadine Hugill & Laura Dane
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Thornhill and Grammer (1999) have argued that certain facial and bodily features in women serve as ‘honest' signals of their reproductive quality and that these features comprise a single condition-dependent ornament. Here we test whether the hypothesis that male faces and bodies also comprise such a sexual ornament. Photographs of faces and bodies (front and back views) of 43 males subjects were rated independently by a total of 78 female volunteers in terms of ‘attractiveness', ‘masculinity', and ‘dominance'. Ratings of male faces correlated significantly positively with the same ratings of their bodies. Thus, if a face was rated as being attractive, dominant and masculine, then the body was rated in the equivalent manner. Males who possess attractive, masculine, and dominant looking faces also possess attractive, masculine, and dominant looking bodies, probably because of similar patterns of underlying proximate mechanisms that affect their development.
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Effects of reciprocity on attraction: The role of a partner's physical attractiveness
Tobias Greitemeyer
Personal Relationships, June 2010, Pages 317-330
Abstract:
Two studies examined whether expectations of reciprocal desire had a greater impact on people's desire for a potential partner the more the partner was physically attractive. Study 1 showed that a reciprocity manipulation had a greater impact on participants' desire for attractive, relative to moderately attractive, and relatively unattractive potential partners. In Study 2, after learning of a potential partner's desire, desire for highly attractive, relative to attractive, potential partners increased to a larger extent. Mediation analyses showed that this effect was due to the participant's initial expectations of reciprocal desire. In contrast, after learning of a potential partner's lack of desire, participant's desire for highly attractive and attractive potential partners decreased to a similar extent.
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Jürgen Gerhards
International Sociology, January 2010, Pages 5-28
Abstract:
The article first describes how the principle of non-discrimination of homosexuals is anchored in EU legislation and influences concrete policies of the European Union. Against this background, the second section analyses citizens' attitudes towards homosexuality and whether there are differences among the 27 EU member states and Turkey. The descriptive findings show that there are substantial differences at the national and individual level in the degree to which citizens think of homosexuality as acceptable. A sense that homosexuality is justifiable is particularly low in recently acceded countries and is almost non-existent in Turkey. Modernization theorists have argued that economic development influences the value orientation of the citizens. Other scholars have claimed that values are strongly influenced by the religious heritage of a country. Using multilevel analysis, the study tests to what extent modernization factors and/or religious factors influence citizens' attitudes towards non-discrimination of homosexuality. According to the results of the causal analysis, modernization theory and cultural heritage theory contribute to explaining attitudes towards homosexuality. All the hypotheses derived from the two theories are supported by the statistical analysis.
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Dana Berkowitz & Linda Liska Belgrave
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, April 2010, Pages 159-186
Abstract:
This article reports an ethnographic study of drag queens who perform in Miami Beach. Drag queens are marginalized, both economically and socially. However, drag enables some gay men to emphasize and manipulate aspects of femininity for the means of earning attention and income and garnering situational power. Grounding their empirical findings in symbolic interaction, identity, and performance theories, the authors argue that drag queens employ nuanced strategies to negotiate their contradictory status of admired yet alienated performers. The authors use observational and in-depth interview data to explore how participants experience, cope with, and challenge their social marginality. The authors then detail the rewards of drag, focusing on the allure of the transformation, situational power, and income. A subjective understanding of drag reveals that although marginalization is a serious issue, the rewards of drag can be empowering. The authors argue that identity work emerges as a link between marginalization and rewards.
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Mary Sylla, Nina Harawa & Olga Grinstead Reznick
American Journal of Public Health, June 2010, Pages 982-985
Abstract:
Most US jails and prisons do not provide condoms to prisoners because of concerns about possible negative consequences. Since 1989, the jail system of San Francisco, California, has provided condoms to male prisoners through 1-on-1 counseling sessions. Given the limitations of this approach, we installed, stocked, and monitored a free condom-dispensing machine in a jail to examine the feasibility of this method of providing condoms to jail prisoners. After the machine was installed, we observed increases in prisoners' awareness of programmatic access to condoms and in their likelihood of having obtained condoms. Particularly large increases in condom uptake were reported among those in high-risk groups. Sexual activity did not increase, custody operations were not impeded, and staff acceptance of condom access for prisoners increased.