A study of homophobia in relation to personality, social desirability, aggression and social dominance among heterosexuals

Abstract

The present study was conducted to gain an insight to correlate homophobia with personality, social desirability, aggression and social dominance among male and female heterosexuals of urban and rural livelihood of Ambala. Homophobia is traditionally defined as “fear, disgust, anger, discomfort and aversion that individuals experience in dealing with gay people”. However, it has been understudied whether there are significant differences in homophobia, personality, aggression and social dominance among male and female heterosexuals of urban and rural livelihood. Also study includes the correlation of homophobia with personality, social desirability, aggression and social dominance of heterosexuals. The study was conducted on 300 heterosexuals out whom 75 male were from urban livelihood, 75 male were from rural livelihood, 75 female were from urban livelihood and 75 female were from rural livelihood. Standardized tools namely homophobia scale (Wright, Adams, and Bernat 1999), Big Five Inventory (John et al.  1991), Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale-Form C (Reynold, 1982), The Buss – Perry Aggression Questionnaire (Arnold Buss and Mark Perry, 1992), Social Dominance Orientation7 Scale (Arnold K. Ho, Jim Sidanius, Nour S. Kteily, Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington, Felicia Pratto, Kristin E. Henkel, Rob Foels And Andrew L. Stewart, 2015). Results revealed that there are non-significant differences in homophobia among male and female heterosexuals of urban and rural livelihood. Personality, social desirability and aggression are negatively correlated to homophobia whereas social dominance positively correlates with homophobia in heterosexuals of urban and rural livelihood.