New Study Shows Evidence of Prejudice Against Asexuals

Details: Category: News; Published on Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:40; Written by Lara Landis; Hits: 928

Asexuals are more likely to be viewed negatively than other sexual minority groups, according to a study conducted by Cara C. MacInnis and Gordon Hudson's Intergroup bias toward “Group X”: Evidence of prejudice, dehumanization, avoidance, and discrimination against Asexuals" was published in Sage's April 24 issue.

Participants were asked questions about how they saw people belonging to various sexual orientations. Heterosexuals were viewed more favorably. Asexuals did not do as well as their Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual counterparts.

The recent survey did not consider Asexuals as potential romantic partners. The survey did ask about human traits that respondents would assign to people belonging to each group. Heterosexuals were assigned the most human traits. Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Gays received fewer of these traits. Asexuals performed less well.

MacInnis and Hudson did not determine if the attitudes of Heterosexuals towards Asexuals are generally more positive than the attitudes of Gays and Lesbians towards Asexuals.

“Those relatively high in RWA [right wing authoritarianism] are more conventional, submit more to authorities, and aggress more against norm violators (Altemeyer, 1996, 1998). Individuals relatively higher in SDO endorse ideologies concerning group dominance and intergroup hierarchies (Pratto et al., 1994). Together, RWA and SDO cover the submissive and dominative elements of prejudice and are generally considered the two strongest prejudice predictors (Altemeyer, 1998; Duckitt, 2005). Although both constructs predict prejudice generally,” wrote MacInnis and Hudson.

The study found that those with strong religious backgrounds are more likely to shun people who do not fall into societally accepted norms. People with less authoritarian views displayed fewer biases against people belonging to sexual minorities.

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Integroup Bias Toward Group X