Investigating the Moderating Role of Positive Intergroup Contact on the Association between Authoritarianism and Homophobia among Heterosexual Young Adults

Abstract

Authoritarian personality traits are associated with compliance and obedience to prevailing social norms and values. In contexts where the political climate fuels homophobia, people with authoritarian personality traits display more homophobic attitudes and behaviors. On the other hand, positive intergroup contact can reduce problems between groups. This positive intergroup contact, which emphasizes similarities by weakening baseless information about the outgroup, has long been used to reduce intergroup conflicts. In a heterosexual sample, whether positive intergroup contact will have a moderating role in the relationship between authoritarianism and homophobia is an open question. To answer this question, 241 young adults (Mage = 22.0, SD = 2.04; 59.3% female, 40.7% male) from 47 different cities of Türkiye were reached. Participants completed the right-wing authoritarianism scale, the social contact form with sexual minorities, and the Hudson & Ricketts homophobia scale. In parallel with the hypotheses, the findings show that authoritarian personality score positively predicted homophobia (β = .49, SE = .05, z = 10.07, p < .001), while positive intergroup contact negatively predicted homophobia (β = -.66, SE = .08, z = -8.67, p < .001). However, contrary to the hypothesis, no moderating role of positive intergroup contact in the association between authoritarianism and homophobia was observed (β = -.03, SE = .05, z = -.53 p = .593). Simple slope analyzes showed that authoritarianism positively predicted homophobia at both high and low levels of positive intergroup contact. The findings are discussed in the context of intergroup contact theory.