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Permalink Reply by doone on April 8, 2012 at 1:26pm

It seem likely - I wonder how many men complain about or care about Lesbians?  The anti gay crowd seems very likely to be closeted gays based  on those found to have secret lives.

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 8, 2012 at 4:18pm

Although it is possible that some homophobes act like they do out of self-loathing, this kind of research needs to be taken with a grain of salt because it is very difficult to measure unconscious same sex attraction, or unconscious attraction, period. But one thing is for sure: having controlling and rigid parents is always a disadvantage.

Permalink Reply by Chris on April 9, 2012 at 2:50am

This article says:

To explore participants' explicit and implicit sexual attraction, the researchers measured the discrepancies between what people say about their sexual orientation and how they react during a split-second timed task. Students were shown words and pictures on a computer screen and asked to put these in "gay" or "straight" categories. Before each of the 50 trials, participants were subliminally primed with either the word "me" or "others" flashed on the screen for 35 milliseconds. They were then shown the words "gay," "straight," "homosexual," and "heterosexual" as well as pictures of straight and gay couples, and the computer tracked precisely their response times. A faster association of "me" with "gay" and a slower association of "me" with "straight" indicated an implicit gay orientation.

A second experiment, in which subjects were free to browse same-sex or opposite-sex photos, provided an additional measure of implicit sexual attraction.

In other article's I've read about this type of research measurement is taken of penis enlargement while gay sex video's are viewed by the participants. It may not be as difficult to measure unconscious attraction as you think.

Permalink Reply by Hope on April 8, 2012 at 5:44pm

Some homosexuals "not all of them" are sometimes trying to provoke straight people by asking them touchy questions.. maybe straights think of this as a harassment and yet they are accused of being homophobic! Just guessing..I dont know! The issue of sexual orientation is always sensitive and it could be touchy.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 8, 2012 at 8:47pm

I'm just glad "perhaps" is in the title of this discussion because nothing seems black and white in this domain or psychological views...

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 10, 2012 at 11:46am

A long article/blog in Scientific America about this finding:

Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals

A new analysis of implicit bias and explicit sexual orientation statements may help to explain the underpinnings of anti-gay bullying and hate crimes

By Jeanna Bryner and LiveScience  | April 10, 2012 | 2

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Image: Wikimedia Commons/thaths

Homophobes should consider a little self-reflection, suggests a new study finding those individuals who are most hostile toward gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselves have same-sex desires, albeit undercover ones.

The prejudice of homophobia may also stem from authoritarian parents, particularly those with homophobic views as well, the researchers added.

"This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, 'Why?'" co-author Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection."

The research, published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reveals the nuances of prejudices like homophobia, which can ultimately have dire consequences. [The 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors]

"Sometimes people are threatened by gays and lesbians because they are fearing their own impulses, in a sense they 'doth protest too much,'" Ryan told LiveScience. "In addition, it appears that sometimes those who would oppress others have been oppressed themselves, and we can have some compassion for them too, they may be unaccepting of others because they cannot be accepting of themselves."

Ryan cautioned, however, that this link is only one source of anti-gay sentiments.

Hidden homosexuality
In four studies, the researchers looked at the discrepancies between what people say about their sexual orientation and their implicit sexual orientation based on a reaction-time test. The studies involved college students from Germany and the United States.

For the implicit measure, students had to categorize words and pictures flashed onto a computer screen into "gay" or "straight" groups. Words included "gay," "straight," "homosexual" and "heterosexual," while the pictures showed straight and gay couples. Before each trial, participants were primed with the word "me" or "others" flashed momentarily onto a computer screen. The researchers said quicker reaction time for "me" and "gay," and a slower association of "me" with "straight" would indicate said an implicit gay orientation. [Why Gay Parents May Be the Best Parents]

In another experiment, the researchers measured implicit sexual orientation by having participants choose to browse same-sex or opposite-sex photos on a computer screen.

Questionnaires also teased out the parenting style the participants were exposed to, with students asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as: "I felt controlled and pressured in certain ways;" and "I felt free to be who I am." To gauge homophobia in a household, students responded to items such as, "It would be upsetting for my mom to find out she was alone with a lesbian" or "My dad avoids gay men whenever possible."

Participants indicated their own level of homophobia, both overt and implicit; in word-completion tasks, students wrote down the first three words that came to mind when prompted with some of the words' letters. Students were primed at some point with the word "gay" to see how that impacted the amount of aggressive words used.

Read the rest here. 

Permalink Reply by Chris on April 11, 2012 at 2:27am

Homophobia Linked to Repressed Homosexual Arousal, Authoritarian Pa... is another article about the same study. It mentions an earlier study done in 1996 Journal of Abnormal Psychology where researchers hooked the subjects' penises up to devices that measured the degree of their erections and showed them pornography. All the men responded to videos of hetrosexual and lesbian intercourse, but only the men that showed signs of homophobia based on a questionnair developed erections in response to homosexual male coupling. 

"Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies," the Georgia researchers wrote in 1996.

One of the challenges to studying repressed homosexuality is, obviously, how to identify same-sex attraction in someone who says they are straight. No technique is fool-proof.

The entire article is here. I only posted a middle portion of the article.

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 28, 2012 at 4:20pm

The NYT has an article on this, not sure why just now. The article is from two of the authors of the study. At the very least the experiments are described very clearly.

Gray Matter

Homophobic? Maybe You’re Gay

By RICHARD M. RYAN and WILLIAM S. RYAN

Published: April 27, 2012

WHY are political and religious figures who campaign against gay rights so often implicated in sexual encounters with same-sex partners?

Enlarge This Image

Chloé Poizat

In recent years, Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader who preached that homosexuality was a sin, resigned after a scandal involving a former male prostitute; Larry Craig, a United States senator who opposed including sexual orientation in hate-crime legislation, was arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom; and Glenn Murphy Jr., a leader of the Young Republican National Convention and an opponent of same-sex marriage, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after being accused of sexually assaulting another man.

One theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being stifled. Even Mr. Haggard seemed to endorse this idea when, apologizing after his scandal for his anti-gay rhetoric, he said, “I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war.”

It’s a compelling theory — and now there is scientific reason to believe it. In this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we and our fellow researchers provide empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same-sex desire.

Our paper describes six studies conducted in the United States and Germany involving 784 university students. Participants rated their sexual orientation on a 10-point scale, ranging from gay to straight. Then they took a computer-administered test designed to measure their implicit sexual orientation. In the test, the participants were shown images and words indicative of hetero- and homosexuality (pictures of same-sex and straight couples, words like “homosexual” and “gay”) and were asked to sort them into the appropriate category, gay or straight, as quickly as possible. The computer measured their reaction times.

The twist was that before each word and image appeared, the word “me” or “other” was flashed on the screen for 35 milliseconds — long enough for participants to subliminally process the word but short enough that they could not consciously see it. The theory here, known as semantic association, is that when “me” precedes words or images that reflect your sexual orientation (for example, heterosexual images for a straight person), you will sort these images into the correct category faster than when “me” precedes words or images that are incongruent with your sexual orientation (for example, homosexual images for a straight person). This technique, adapted from similar tests used to assess attitudes like subconscious racial bias, reliably distinguishes between self-identified straight individuals and those who self-identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual.

Using this methodology we identified a subgroup of participants who, despite self-identifying as highly straight, indicated some level of same-sex attraction (that is, they associated “me” with gay-related words and pictures faster than they associated “me” with straight-related words and pictures). Over 20 percent of self-described highly straight individuals showed this discrepancy.

Notably, these “discrepant” individuals were also significantly more likely than other participants to favor anti-gay policies; to be willing to assign significantly harsher punishments to perpetrators of petty crimes if they were presumed to be homosexual; and to express greater implicit hostility toward gay subjects (also measured with the help of subliminal priming). Thus our research suggests that some who oppose homosexuality do tacitly harbor same-sex attraction.

What leads to this repression? We found that participants who reported having supportive and accepting parents were more in touch with their implicit sexual orientation and less susceptible to homophobia. Individuals whose sexual identity was at odds with their implicit sexual attraction were much more frequently raised by parents perceived to be controlling, less accepting and more prejudiced against homosexuals.

It’s important to stress the obvious: Not all those who campaign against gay men and lesbians secretly feel same-sex attractions. But at least some who oppose homosexuality are likely to be individuals struggling against parts of themselves, having themselves been victims of oppression and lack of acceptance. The costs are great, not only for the targets of anti-gay efforts but also often for the perpetrators. We would do well to remember that all involved deserve our compassion.

Richard M. Ryan is a professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester. William S. Ryan is a doctoral student in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Permalink Reply by Michel on April 28, 2012 at 4:38pm

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 28, 2012 at 4:44pm

To tell you the truth, I always thought Santorum was a repressed gay.

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on April 28, 2012 at 4:55pm

Wouldn't surprise me.

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 28, 2012 at 4:58pm

He's a little bit too obsessed with what gay people do in the privacy of their bedroom.

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