Social Contact, Social Distancing, and Attitudes Toward LGT Individuals: A Cross-Cultural Study of College Students in the United States, Italy, and Spain. Issue 13 (10th November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Worthen, Meredith G. F.; Tanzilli, Annalisa; Caristo, Chiara; Lingiardi, Vittorio
• Is Part Of: Journal of homosexuality. Volume 66:Issue 13(2019)
• Page Start: 1882
• Page End: 1908
• Publication Date: 2019-11-10
• Subjects: Lesbian -- gay -- transgender -- prejudice -- attitudes -- contact hypothesis -- social distancing -- United States -- Italy -- Spain -- Texas -- Oklahoma; Homosexuality -- Periodicals; 306.766
• DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2018.1519302
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-8369

Abstract

ABSTRACT: More than any other time in modern history, today people are significantly more likely to know (or be) lesbian, gay, and transgender (LGT) people; however, prejudices directed toward these groups remain. In the current study, we explore how social contact and social distancing/desired social contact are related to LGT prejudices using Worthen's (2012) Attitudes Toward LGT People Scales and data from four heterosexual college student samples in Oklahoma, Texas, Italy, and Spain ( N = 1, 217). In doing so, we provide the first-ever study to explore Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis as it relates to transgender prejudices in Italy and Spain and the first study to examine desired social contact/social distancing and transgender prejudice in the U.S., Italy, and Spain. Our findings demonstrate that measures of desired social contact are strongly related to cross-cultural LGT attitudes, while simple measures of contact (i.e., knowing an LGT person) are significantly less robust.