Gender-specific models of homosexual prejudice: Religiosity, authoritarianism, and gender roles.

Utilizing moderated hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the researchers examined the relative roles of right wing authoritarianism (RWA), religious fundamentalism (RF), general religiosity, sex, gender role traits, and self-discrepancy along gender role traits in predicting multiple dimensions of prejudice toward homosexuals. The goal was to identify gender-specific correlates of homosexual prejudice. Findings revealed that RWA exhibited a consistently positive relationship with prejudice, which along the Condemnation-Tolerance dimension of prejudice was stronger for men. Also, RF's and general religiosity's relationship with prejudice was consistently fully mediated by the presence of RWA. Gender roles were inconsistently correlated with dimensions of prejudice, and the interaction of masculine gender roles and perceived self-discrepancy from gender roles was only significant in predicting the Condemnation-Tolerance homosexual prejudice scale. Lastly, for females, general religiosity was a significant positive predictor for only the Condemnation-Tolerance and Neutral Contact Apprehension homosexual prejudice scales. Implications are reviewed related to authoritarianism as a universal correlate of homosexual prejudice, RF's and RWA's distinctiveness, perceived self-discrepancy from masculine gender roles as a male-specific correlate of homosexual prejudice, and general religiosity as a female-specific correlate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)