4.2 Sexual Orientation Beliefs Flashcards
Define sexual orientation
“An enduring pattern of sexual and/or romantic attraction to men, women, or both, to varying degrees”
Define sexual identity
self-identification as an LGB+ person
Define sexual behaviour
With whom one has sexual encounters and/or romantic relationships
How is sexual orientation distinct from people’s social identity?
Social identity is the socially constructed label for people’s social orientation
Social identity is socially constructed and culturally specific
What is sexual orientation (SO) essentialism?
Underlying essence to a social group - this gives rise to the characteristic features of the group
When it comes to SO and looking at it with genetic theory, view it as innate
What are the key principles of SO essentialism?
Innate
Immutable
Universal across culture and time
Exists in discrete categories
Discuss SO essentialism and immutability
Believes SO to never change - once it emerges in life, it never changes
In contrast, changeable is that people can experience diff SO through diff stages in their life - not talking about change in identity
Eg. When people come out after a while
Discuss SO essentialism and universality
The way SO manifests across culture and time is universally the same in the genetic view
Discuss SO essentialism and SO existing in discrete categories
Genetic view primes us to think of SO as existing in discrete categories
Carved in the basis of nature and not socially constructed
Discuss SO as continuous
Exclusively straight and gay at one end with a mixture in the middle
Usually talked about in the context of LGBTQ politics
Late 90s - opponents of gay rights argued that it didn’t make sense because being gay wasn’t an essential characteristic, it was a life style choice
Ads for conversion therapy centre = “no one is born gay”
“being gay is absolutely a choice”
Discuss Bailey’s study on twins and homosexuality
1st study to show biological indication of homosexuality
MZ twins who were homosexual had 52% concordance compared to 22% in DS twins
Increased concordance between MZ twins = indication of biological influence
What did the Bailey study lead onto?
The “gay gene” study:
Molecular genetic study - took blood samples
Gay men more likely to have a polymorphism of the X chromosome
Replicated by Bailey’s lab
Discuss the “gay brain” study
“gay brain” - their brains are different
Has been disputed by sciences
Post mortem dissections of gay men, straight men and straight women brains and looked at a part of the hypothalamus INH3:
Women have larger INH3
Men have smaller INH3
Interestingly gay men had larger INH3, similar to straight women, compared to straight men
What reaction did these biological studies have on stigma attitudes towards homosexuality?
Has a reduction on stigma attitudes and can have +ve effect on attitudes towards gay people
How do essentialist beliefs argue for extending gay rights?
“born this way”
If something is inborn, we should extend legal rights to protect it
Why do theories on SO result in +ve effect?
Attribution theory:
Idea that when people judge other’s behaviour, we try to analyse the causes of that behaviour
When it is attributed to stigmatised statuses, if the person is thought to have caused their stigma, they are judged more harshly
If the stigma is out of their control results in more benign attitudes towards the individual
What did Weiner, Perry & Magnusson’s study show?
Illustrated attribution theory:
Looked at psychological and physical diseases
Some of the traits perceived more out of individual’s control elicited more +ve response
Eg. Don’t blame the person for having cancer etc
People do blame people for things like obesity, perpetrators of child abuse etc
Evidence that people tend to punish individuals who we think have caused their stigma
What is the key argument surrounding LGB people and attribution theory?
LGB people will be viewed as less blame-worthy when their stigmatised status is perceived to be beyond their control (i.e. due to a gay gene) than when perceived to be controllable (i.e. due to learning, environmental factors, choice).
What perceptions do people have when they perceive homosexuality as essentialist view?
Less homonegativity
More supportive of constitution amendment to legalise same sex marriage
Morally acceptable lifestyle
Support equal legal rights for cohabiting same-sex couples
Equal employment rights
What are the public acceptance levels like of homosexuality?
There has been a general increase of public acceptance of homosexuality: 10% in early 80s of homosexuality being inborn -> mid 00s 40%
Do essentialist accounts of SO really cause pro-LBG+ attitudes?
Experimental findings have been inconsistent:
Improved attitudes, null effect and more -ve attitudes
What did Boysen & Vogel investigate?
Biased assimilation and attitude polarisation
Define biased assimilation
The tendency to evaluate belief consistent info more +vly than belief inconsistent info
When we challenge people’s strong beliefs on an issue makes uncomfortable and results in people becoming more attached to their original belief and attitude
Define attitude polarisation
When people become more strongly attached to their original beliefs
What did Ps in Boysen & Vogel’s study do?
200 undergrad students =Ps
Rated their attitudes towards homosexuality
Then received the intervention - read 1.5 pages of SO that described it as the result of biology
Asked how persuasive the reading was and how persuasive it was in showing that homosexuality is a legitimate SO
Compare their current attitude to the previous one
What did Boysen & Vogel find?
There was evidence of biased assimilation and attitude polarisation
Concerning as people who started with v -ve attitudes rated reading as unconvincing and became even more -ve towards LGBTQ
This sort of intervention, therefore, is not the most useful to change attitudes
How do genetic explanations become problematic?
Becomes problematic because discreteness beliefs are strongly correlated with more -ve attitudes towards homosexuality
Discreteness beliefs determine an outgroup
When we see an outgroup more likely to stereotype that group
Perceive their behaviours as part of their underlying disposition
What was the strongest predictor found of anti-homosexuality attitudes?
Discreteness beliefs
Primes the genetic view to have 2 potential effects: +ve and -ve
What had no prediction power towards attitudes regarding bisexuals?
Immutability has no prediction power on +ve attitudes towards bisexuals
Describe evidence against immutability
Some women experience shifts in sexual identity, attraction and behaviour overtime
Shifts can be bidirectional
Same-sex attraction may emerge unexpectedly later in life after successful heterosexual functioning (and without prior awareness of same-sex attractiveness) or vice versa
What isn’t necessarily incompatible with essentialism?
Fluidity:
Genetic thing could open someone up over their life course to experience diff things
Doesn’t have to be immutable to be genetic
What is an environmental epigenetic explanation of homosexuality?
Antibody in mother’s of gay men that is more prevalent - epigenetic study
This can influence the developing brain of the foetus
What do exclusive same-sex and non-exclusive same-sex SO feel about theories?
Exclusively same sex SO preferred essentialist explanations
Non-exclusive same sex SO rejected essentialist theories
Gay and lesbian preferred discrete categories
Non-exclusive preferred continuous approach = accommodates all the potential sexual identities
