A Dilemma of Dogma: Specifying the Personality Root of Sexual Prejudice

ABSTRACT

The current study integrated prior research demonstrating 1) a mediational process by which the Five-Factor Model personality factor Openness to Experience, transmitted through right-wing authoritarian ideology, predicts sexual prejudice and 2) that the Five-Factor Model personality facet Openness to Values may be the more precise personality root of this process. Participants were 79 college students who completed a comprehensive measure of Five-Factor Model personality factors and facets and other relevant measures. Results supported hypotheses. In particular, facet-level Openness to Values accounted for comparable unique variance in sexual prejudice as factor-level Openness, and analyses of direct and indirect effects and overall model fit supported Openness to Values as the precise source predictor of the mediational pathway. Discussion focuses on preliminary evidence that Openness (and perhaps its facets) may be cultivated, and sexual prejudice reduced, by contact interventions. I emphasize in particular the promise of contact interventions that avoid frustration of the dogmatic personality by enhancing the experiential processing mode, including encouraging mental simulation of alternate social values.

KEYWORDS:

• Personality
• dogma
• Openness to Values
• authoritarian predisposition
• ideology
• sexual prejudice
• prejudice reduction
• experiential processing
• counterfactual thinking

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant to the author from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Sam Houston State University, author’s previous affiliation. The author thanks Tess Gemberling, Brett Gardner, Alix Burks, Dianeth Rodriguez, and Kelsey Laxton for their various contributions. Portions have been published in abstracted form at an annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.