Antigay prejudice among heterosexual males: Right-wing authoritarianism as a stronger predictor than social-dominance orientation and heterosexual identity

In recent years there has been much contested debate around the psychology of prejudice and the extent to which it is essentially an outcome of a variety of personality-related variables or whether the social context with which one identifies plays an equally, if not more, important role. Debate has also been focused on the complex interplay of personality and social context. In this study, using a combination of survey and experimental methodology, we examined the extent to which antigay prejudice among men is predicted by right-wing authoritarianism, social-dominance orientation, and identity as a heterosexual. In phase 1 (N = 112) antigay stereotypes were found to be significantly related to right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, but nevertheless best predicted by right-wing authoritarianism (β = .27, p < .01) and in phase 2 (N = 52), despite males’ sexual identity being primed, heterosexual identity was still not significantly related to measures of prejudice. These results are discussed with reference to the nature of authoritarianism and social-dominance orientation, as well as social-identity theory.