Study: Disgust Sensitivity Partially Attributed to Anti-LGBTQ Attitudes
What drives someone toward prejudiced thought? Is it one’s environment, or is it simply the way their brains are wired? Florian van Leeuwen, an assistant psychology professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, sought to answer this question. Ultimately the study, published in the journal Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, found that people more sensitive to disgust are more likely to carry anti-LGBTQ attitudes.
Homophobia in relation to disgust-inspiring commentary and imagery has been used by anti-LGBTQ activists for years, with commenters on these studies noting that “opponents of gay civil rights often use images meant to inspire disgust and physical revulsion against gays and lesbians.”
With this in mind, Van Leeuwen analyzed an earlier study that investigates the human brain’s process of pathogen response and avoidance, or disgust, in relation to the following four explanations for the reaction:
“The first explanation suggests that pathogen avoidance relates specifically to negative attitudes toward gay men. The second explanation suggests that pathogen avoidance relates to not just negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, but also toward other groups associated with violating sexual norms. The third explanation suggests that pathogen avoidance relates to negative attitudes toward outgroups in general. The fourth explanation suggests that disgust sensitivity relates to the condemnation of perceived norm violations.”
Putting Theory to Test
The study was conducted on 11,200 residents of 31 different countries, with data collection being focused on those attracted to people of the same gender. Recruitment for the test occurred both on and off university campuses, some samples from university populations, others from non-university populations, which generated an average age range of 30.
The sampled population was asked to indicate on a numerical scale how disgusted they would feel in various activities that could result in an infection, questions regarding sexual promiscuity in general, and the following two questions specifically related to same-gender attraction:
“Should homosexuals have the exact same marriage rights as heterosexuals?” and “Should society accept homosexuality?” (The answer options were limited to no and yes.)
Within the contents of the survey, two social categories referred to gay or lesbian sexual orientation (gay men, and lesbian women). Two social categories were associated with sexual promiscuity—but not sexual orientation (sex workers, sexually promiscuous people). And four categories were not characterized by sexual behavior (lawyers, politicians, farmers, and atheists). Two of these categories—lawyers and politicians—are associated with cooperative norm violations.
End Results or Further Questions?
The concluding points of the study, and Van Leeuwen’s analysis, suggest the relationship between pathogen-avoidance and homophobia and other prejudices is internationally based. The study highlights that the recorded results “provide little support for the notion that pathogen-avoidance motivations relate specifically to antigay prejudice. Instead, they suggest that pathogen-avoidance motivations relate more broadly to prejudice toward groups associated with sexual norm violations.”
In this study, the relation between disgust sensitivity and anti-LGBTQ attitudes is found to be present across multiple cultural regions, related to a perceived violation of traditionalist viewpoints.
Later with PsyPost, Van Leeuwen reasons that “people might strategically attempt to reduce others’ sexual promiscuity, for example, by creating norms that maintain monogamous relations. I think that this is an interesting explanation, and there is some evidence for it. But at this point, we don’t really know if it holds up as an explanation of prejudice towards gay men and lesbian women across cultures around the world.”
So, given these results, the question of why certain individuals choose to express anti-LGBTQ sentiment remains scientifically unanswered.
