Gender Role Beliefs and Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Chile and the U.S.

Sex Roles (2007) 57:6167 DOI 10.1007/s11199-007-9197-1

BRIEF REPORT

Gender Role Beliefs and Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Chile and the U.S.

Angela J. Nierman & Suzanne C. Thompson &

Angela Bryan & Amanda L. Mahaffey

Published online: 4 May 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007

Abstract We compared the relationship between gender role beliefs and antigay prejudice in Chile and the United States. Participants were Chilean and American university students. In Study 1, Chileans were more prejudiced than Americans, and men were more prejudiced than women. In Study 2, gender role beliefs mediated cultural and sex differences in prejudice. Chileans held more traditional gender role beliefs and were more antigay than Americans. Men were more prejudiced than women, particularly in their attitudes toward gay men. Further, sex differences in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were completely mediated by gender role beliefs. Nationality differences in attitudes toward lesbians were completely mediated, and nationality differences in attitudes toward gay men were partially mediated, by gender role beliefs.

Keywords Gender roles . Prejudice . Cross-cultural . Sex differences

Although the study of prejudice was originally limited to issues of race and gender, psychologists conception of prejudice has broadened since the 1980s to include issues of religious and political ideology (Herek 1987), obesity (Crandall et al. 2001), physical or mental illness (Weiner et al. 1988), and sexual orientation (Whitley 1990). While prejudice is universal in that hostility toward outgroups occurs in all cultures, the conditions under which prejudice is expressed can vary widely in different types of cultures (e.g., cultures defined by UN gender indices as more progressive or more traditional; Fiske 2000). The current study investigated factors that are associated with antigay prejudice and how they are similar or different in two distinct cultural contexts: Chile, a highly patriarchal country characterized by its machista culture of male dominance and rigid definition of masculinity, and the United States, a less patriarchal country with relatively more egalitarian ideals.

While machismo can be taken to mean many different things, including the celebration of male dominance, sexuality, aggression, honor, and possessiveness and control of women, it is widely recognized as the foremost symbol of Latin American masculinity (Fuller 1998). Serving as one indication of the predominance...