The effect of the promiscuity stereotype on opposition to gay rights.

David Pinsof,Martie G Haselton,Ian D Stephen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178534

David Pinsof, Martie G Haselton + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178534

Copy DOI

Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Jul 13, 2017
Citations: 48	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Opposition to gay rights is prevalent in countries around the world. Recent correlational research suggests that opposition to gay rights may be driven by an interaction between one’s own short-term mating orientation (i.e. willingness to engage in casual sex) and representations of gay people as sexually promiscuous. Here, we experimentally manipulated representations of gay men by randomly assigning participants to read one of two versions of a fictitious newspaper article, one of which contained faux scientific evidence confirming the stereotype that gay men are promiscuous, and the other containing faux scientific evidence refuting the stereotype. We found that the manipulation interacted with short-term mating orientation (STMO) to predict opposition to gay rights, such that low-STMO individuals (i.e. more averse to casual sex) exhibited more support for gay rights when assigned to read the stereotype-refuting article compared to the stereotype-confirming article, whereas high-STMO individuals (i.e. less averse to casual sex) were not significantly influenced by the manipulation. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of antigay attitudes, as well as for recent societal changes in acceptance of homosexuality.

Highlights

Despite recent trends towards greater acceptance of homosexuality in the United States, opposition to gay adoption and gay marriage are still common, with 39% and 35% of Americans opposed, respectively [1, 2]
We found that the manipulation interacted with short-term mating orientation (STMO) to predict opposition to gay rights, such that low-STMO individuals exhibited more support for gay rights when assigned to read the stereotype-refuting article compared to the stereotype-confirming article, whereas high-STMO individuals were not significantly influenced by the manipulation
Consistent with these ideas, Pinsof and Haselton [21] found that representations of gay people as promiscuous play a powerful role in predicting opposition to gay marriage in the United States, among individuals pursuing a sexually conservative mating strategy

Summary

Introduction

Despite recent trends towards greater acceptance of homosexuality in the United States, opposition to gay adoption and gay marriage are still common, with 39% and 35% of Americans opposed, respectively [1, 2]. Individuals pursuing the mating strategies typical of social conservatives may be more motivated to condemn sexual promiscuity than their more socially liberal counterparts For women pursuing this strategy, having a larger number of children at a younger age cannot be as achieved without the commitment and financial support of a male-breadwinner. It is plausible that homosexual promiscuity was not a reliable feature of ancestral environments, and that human psychology has not evolved to differentiate between threats posed by homosexual vs heterosexual promiscuity Consistent with these ideas, Pinsof and Haselton [21] found that representations of gay people as promiscuous play a powerful role in predicting opposition to gay marriage in the United States, among individuals pursuing a sexually conservative mating strategy (measured by STMO). We sought to test the hypothesis that exposure to the article would influence participants’ opposition to gay rights, and that this effect would be larger among low-STMO individuals than high-STMO individuals

Participants

Results

Discussion