Beliefs That Sexual Orientation Is a Choice and Motivation to Control Prejudice Moderates Method of Disease Transmission and Sexual Orientation Effects on Reactions to HIV-Positive Men

Abstract

We examined the role of sexual orientation and method of disease transmission (controllable or uncontrollable) in reactions to an HIV-positive male applying for prescription drug coverage. In Study 1, we examined participants' beliefs regarding whether sexual orientation is a choice as a moderator of sexual orientation and method of disease transmission effects. When infection was uncontrollable, participants who believe orientation is a choice responded more negatively to gay than heterosexual applicants. A second study replicated Study 1 and found that beliefs regarding orientation as a choice only influenced reactions among participants low in motivation to control prejudice.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks go to both the reviewers and to Dr. Leonard Newman. Their comments and advice helped us greatly throughout the revision process.

Notes

¹No significant differences existed between students and nonstudents, and only attitudes toward gay men differed, t(250) = −2.14, p = .034, d = 0.30, between the participation pool and the Internet sample, with Internet sample expressing more negative attitudes toward gay men. Because of the similarity across samples, we determined collapsing was appropriate.

²Including participants in the analyses who failed the manipulation check yielded nonsignificant results.

³No significant gender effects on study outcomes were found (all Fs < 2.62, ps > .10).

⁴We did find a significant negative relationship between MCP and beliefs regarding sexual orientation as a choice (r = −.235, p < .001), with greater motivation to control prejudice associated with the tendency to believe that sexual orientation is a choice. Although the weak correlation does indicate that the constructs are relatively distinct, the significant correlation also indicates that one may inform the other in a biased way. That is, perhaps, those who believe sexuality is a choice tend to be less motivated to control their bias toward gay men and lesbians. Alternatively, it could be that lack of a motivation to be viewed as prejudiced increases the likelihood that people will feel comfortable reporting that they believe sexual orientation is a choice.

⁵In Study 2 we found similar effects using negative attributions (e.g., control, responsibility and blame). Specifically, we found a four-way interaction, b = .01, t(404) = 2.24, p = .026, sr ² = .003, revealing that participants who are low in motivation to control prejudice and who believe orientation is a choice made more negative attributions, b = 2.64, t(404) = 3.48, p < .01, sr ² = .007, when infection was uncontrollable and the target was gay (M = 31.2, SD = 12.8) rather than heterosexual (M = 17.0, SD = 4.3). For those high in motivation to control prejudice, method of disease transmission was the only significant predictor of support for admittance, b = 1.79, t(404) = 7.82, p < .01, such that participants were less likely to support admittance when infection was uncontrollable (M = 15.9, SD = 2.9) rather than controllable (M = 20.7, SD = 2.8).

^a Reverse scored items.