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The Relationship Between Sexism, Affective States, and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in a Sample of Heterosexual Italian People

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Abstract

Background

Research within the Italian context on the determinants of attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women is relatively poor compared with the large number of investigations carried out in other countries. Our goal is to examine Italians’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women, as well as the factors that encourage these perspectives. We are interested in whether socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education level, and religiosity predict negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Another goal is to examine affectivity and sexism’s role in predicting attitudes toward homosexuality.

Methods

The study was conducted online with 1328 Italian heterosexual participants (women, 67.3%; men, 32.7%) ranging in age from 18 to 78 (women: M = 23.9, SD = 5.2; men: M = 26, SD = 8.9).

Results

The results show that men, older people, more religious people, sexists, and those who had higher negative affectivity were more predisposed to having negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women.

Conclusions

The results are discussed, while considering their practical implications for prevention and education programs focused on reducing discrimination against lesbian and gay people in Italian society today.

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Correspondence to Cristina Sechi.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This research was approved by the University of Torino’s Bioethics Committee.

Informed Consent

All participants provided informed consent for participation in this research.

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Rollè, L., Sechi, C., Santoniccolo, F. et al. The Relationship Between Sexism, Affective States, and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in a Sample of Heterosexual Italian People. Sex Res Soc Policy 19, 194–206 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00534-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00534-5

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