A STUDY OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS HOMOSEXUALS IN AN ASIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

The present research attempted to investigate attitudes towards, homosexuals in the local context, using an experimental method. This study compared differences between attitudes towards homosexuals, heterosexuals and persons whose sexual orientation was unknown. One hundred and twenty students participated in the study. Five measures, mood, similarity, and the three dimensions of Byrne's Interpersonal Judgment Scale, namely intelligence, morality and personal feelings, were used to measure their attitudes towards a stranger who was either homosexual, heterosexual or unlabeled. The results indicated that subjects found a homosexual less attractive than a heterosexual or unlabeled person. An interesting finding was that they found homosexuals less similar to themselves than the heterosexuals or unlabeled persons. This is congruent with Byrne's similarity-attraction hypothesis in explaining the lower attraction towards homosexuals. There was also a belief that homosexuals were less moral and less psychologically adjusted than the heterosexuals or unlabeled persons. The analyses also revealed some differences in attitudes towards persons of different sex. Male homosexuals were perceived as less intelligent, less moral and less attractive than female homosexuals. That is, there was a general bias favouring females over males when they were homosexual. This might indicate differential mechanism underlying the attitudes towards female and male homosexuals. However, for strangers who were labeled heterosexual, there was a bias in attitudes which was in favour of strangers of one's own sex. This was consistent with local norms of the population sampled, that it was more common to choose people of one's own sex for company, to have more same-sex friends, to be more familiar with people of one's own sex, and more shy with those of the opposite sex. Future research directions were suggested.