Particularly in Highly Developed and More Gender Egalitarian Societies: Sex Differences in Attitudes Towards Homosexuality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Time and again, research has shown that men are less accepting of homosexuality than women. Studies on such attitudinal sex differences have been overwhelmingly conducted in Western democracies, however, with a special focus on the U.S. Whether the sex difference in attitudes towards homosexuality is a worldwide phenomenon has not yet been investigated. Using data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (2017–2021), this article provides evidence that the sex difference is not universal, but limited almost exclusively to Europe and the Americas, indicating the need to replicate studies conducted in these societies in global cross-country comparisons. Contrary to predictions of the social role theory or biosocial construction theory, but in line with predictions from evolutionary psychology and a growing number of empirical studies in this field, the sex difference in attitudes towards homosexuality widens with rising gender equality and development, especially when the two coincide.