Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Joe R. Miles

Committee Members

Patrick R. Grzanka, Michael A. Olson, Joel F. Diambra

Abstract

This study aimed to replicate and extend the first true experiment to investigate the impact of diverse sexual orientation (SO) beliefs on homonegativity (Fry et al., 2020). We performed an experiment to determine if targeting multiple types of SO beliefs could be more effective in reducing homonegative prejudice towards gay men, binegativity towards bisexual men, and infrahumanization towards gay and bisexual men than just focusing on beliefs about biogenetic determinants of SO. We randomly assigned 200 participants (57% men, 78% white) to a treatment or control condition. Participants in a treatment condition read an essay that summarized: (1) research implying that SO is biogenetically determined; (2) research implying that SO is socially constructed and countering beliefs regarding the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO groups; or (3) research implying that SO is biogenetically determined as well as research implying that SO groups are socially constructed and not particularly discrete, homogenous, or informative. We expected that participants in both conditions targeting diverse beliefs pertaining to the social construction of SO would report the greatest decreases in beliefs in the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO groups, in homonegative prejudice, and in binegativity. We expected that only participants in the condition excluding biogenetic determinants would report the greatest decreases in infrahumanization, and any observed changes would still be detectable a week after the intervention. We did not observe predicted shifts in SO beliefs. Only participants in the condition discussing biogenetic determinants reported significant decreases in homonegative prejudice and binegativity. There were no changes in infrahumanization. Observed changes were still present a week after the intervention. We discuss the possibility that educational interventions targeting SO beliefs may produce long-lasting reductions in prejudice towards sexual minorities (SMs).

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