DR. ERIN DEVERS
KATIE GUSTAFSON
INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
The Role of Religious and
Political Beliefs in Attitudes
toward Homosexuals
Project Design
 Study has two components:
 Quantitative research


Online Survey
Qualitative research

20 interviews with students about their personal experience and
views with this topic
Past Research
 Most research shows there is a strong correlation
between political and religious values and
homosexual prejudice
 This research has grouped large groups of people (i.e.
Christians) together even though they may vary
dramatically in religious and political beliefs
 Laythe et al., 2002



Nuanced perspective
Christian Orthodoxy moderately correlated with homosexual
prejudice.
After controlling for RWA, a negative correlation between
Christian Orthodoxy and prejudice was found.
Hypotheses
 Negative attitudes toward homosexuals would be
driven primarily by political rather than religious
beliefs
 Morality subscale of Components of Attitudes toward
Homosexuals would be highly correlated with the
religious variables (RF, Intrinsic/Extrinsic
religiosity)
Method
 Online survey sent out via Daily Developments email
 272 began the survey, 187 completed it
 128 Female (68.4%), 59 male (31.5%)
 Age - M=19.89, SD=1.69
 93.8% Caucasian
 152 questions
 Opportunity for a paid interview
Instruments
 Components of Attitudes Toward Homosexuals
(LaMar & Kite, 1998).

Condemnation / Tolerance


Social Norms / Morality


Gay men (lesbians) endanger the institution of the family.
Contact


Lesbians (gay men) should not be allowed to hold responsible
positions.
I avoid gay men (lesbians) whenever possible.
Stereotypes

Most lesbians (gay men) have a life of one night stands
Instruments
 Right-wing authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1981)
 Social Dominance Orientation (Sidanius & Pratto,
2001).
 Religious Fundamentalism (Altemeyer &
Hunsberger, 2004)
 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religiosity (Gorsuch, 1989 )
Correlations
Variable
Social
Morality
Contact
Advances
Stereotypes Homototal SDO
Condemnation .777**
.584**
.808**
.538**
.669**
.874**
Social Norms
.831**
.820**
.696**
.733**
.677**
.683**
.666**
RWA
RF
Intrinsic
.446** .691**
.451**
.289**
.941**
.433**
.830**
.651**
.447**
.562**
.818**
.308** .693**
.697**
.520**
.681**
.938**
.454**
.704**
.463** .347**
.563**
.757**
.293** .649**
.520** .406**
.794**
.421**
.448** .313**
Norms
Morality
Contact
Advances
Stereotypes
.607**
Correlations
Variable
Attitudes
SDO
.469**
RWA
Religious
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Fundamentalism
Religiosity
Religiosity
.823**
.604**
.448**
.052
.447**
.277**
.081
.115
.711**
.420**
.008
.549**
-.116
Homosexuality
SDO
RWA
Religious
Fundamentalism
Intrinsic Religiosity
-.012
Regressions
Results
 RWA, SDO, and IR are all significant predictors of
the overall homosexuality attitudes score
 Political components (RWA, SDO) are better
predictors than religious components (IR/ER, RF)
for all scales but morality scale
 RF and IR are predictors of morality component of
attitudes toward homosexuals
 “The idea of gay marriage is ridiculous to me”

Accounts for 73.2% of the total variability in homosexuality
scale
Qualitative Study
 20 participants selected from the survey
 Semi-structured interview
 Interviews averaged about 45 minutes each
Questions








Do any of your family members identify as Gay or Lesbian? Close
friends? Acquaintances?
How often do you interact with people who are Gay or Lesbian?
What have your parents and church told you about people who
are Gay or Lesbian?
How would you feel if your roommate was Gay or Lesbian?
How would you react if one of your friends told you they were
gay?
Would you feel safe confiding in another IWU student that you
were Gay or Lesbian?
How do you think the average student at IWU would interact with
a person who identified as Gay or Lesbian?
How would a faculty member react to learning a student
identified as Gay or Lesbian? A member of the administration?