RESEARCH: Religiosity, Authoritarianism, and Homophobia: A Multidimensional Approach

Abstract

Research on religiosity and homophobic prejudice has typically employed unidimensional measures of antigay prejudice that measure homophobia as a single collective set of attitudes. To better understand the religiosity-homophobia relationship, the study reported here examined the relations of authoritarianism and several measures of religiosity to a multidimensional measure of homophobia that assess respondents' social contact apprehension, morality beliefs, civil rights attitudes, and stereotypic beliefs regarding gay men and lesbians. A canonical correlation analysis on 443 heterosexual undergraduates indicated that the religiosity-homophobia relationship was influenced by the component of homophobia assessed. The results reported here suggest that the relationship between religiosity and homophobia may be more complex than previous research with unidimensional measures indicates.