title: Is homophobia associated with an implicit same-sex attraction?
abstract: Some theorists propose that homophobia stems from underlying same-sex attraction. A few studies have tested this hypothesis, yet without a clear measure of implicit sexual attraction, producing mixed results. For the first time, we test this attraction-based account of homophobia among both men and women using an implicit measure of sexual attraction. No evidence of an attraction-based account of homophobia emerged. Instead, implicit same-sex attraction was related to positive evaluations of gay men and lesbians among female participants. Even in targeted analyses examining the relation between implicit same-sex attraction and homosexual evaluations among only those theoretically most likely to demonstrate an attraction-based homophobic effect, implicit same-sex attraction was not associated with evaluations of homosexuals or was associated with more positive evaluations of homosexuals. In addition, explicit same-sex attraction was related to positive evaluations of gay men and lesbians for male participants. These results are more in keeping with the attitude-similarity effect (i.e., people like, rather than dislike, similar others).
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Brock University.
authors.forename: Cara C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Macinnis
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hodson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D063509:Homophobia / Q000523:psychology*; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult