The Relationship Between Sexism, Affective States, and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in a Sample of Heterosexual Italian People

Background: Research within the Italian context on the determinants of attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women is relatively poor compared with the large number of investigations carried out in other countries. Our goal is to examine Italians’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women, as well as the factors that encourage these perspectives. We are interested in whether socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education level, and religiosity predict negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Another goal is to examine affectivity and sexism’s role in predicting attitudes toward homosexuality. Methods: The study was conducted online with 1328 Italian heterosexual participants (women, 67.3%; men, 32.7%) ranging in age from 18 to 78 (women: M = 23.9, SD = 5.2; men: M = 26, SD = 8.9). Results: The results show that men, older people, more religious people, sexists, and those who had higher negative affectivity were more predisposed to having negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Conclusions: The results are discussed, while considering their practical implications for prevention and education programs focused on reducing discrimination against lesbian and gay people in Italian society today.