Homophobia associated with higher rates of psychoticism

[Manfred Belheim]

I disagree. It seems to me that it is the same sort of excessive fear of [whatever] taken to an extreme where it influences behavior far beyond what is warranted as any other phobia. The word is overused, just like arachnophobia or some of the other popular sounds good on social media phobias.

I go out to the garage and see a black widow spider. I will dispose of it, exercising due caution. My friend says "Just crush it in your fist! Whassamatter? Arachnophobia?" There's no phobia there. Like I said though, if unrealistic fears of spiders that might be in the garage have me parking my car out in the street, that's an issue.

Same thing applies to homophobia. The word gets slung around a lot more than people even think about gays. But there are definitely people who are genuinely homophobic. The whole "keep gays away" as if it might be contagious business demonstrates that; unrealistic fear of something that isn't real affecting behavior.

Would you describe racism, sexism, or classism as phobias though? They're pretty much all the same sort of mentality as homophobia, they just don't have "phobia" in the term used to describe them.

While I get the argument (thought don't necessarily believe it) that hatred and bigotry stem from some form of "fear of the different/unknown" or something, it largely manifests as disgust or hate rather than the sort of blind panic you'd associate with actual phobias. I don't think they're the same thing at all.

 

[Senethro]

Do "actual" phobias only manifest as blind panic though?

 

[REDY]

2 girls 1 cup sort of fear.

 

[Tigranes]

Not exactly sure why Aleksey posted it though...

 

[Formaldehyde]

Don't worry... you will catch me being wrong at some point... I'm wrong often enough

As though it hasn't already happened numerous times already, including this time.

Apologise

Good luck with that.

 

[Sommerswerd]

As though it hasn't already happened numerous times already, including this time.

I was definitely suprised that you lived in the South longer than I did, I will grant that you caught me with that one.

However, on this particular point you are wrong. I posted the quotes. So I am not sure what you think you are talking about... Seems like you got kind of a fingers-in-the-ears-lalalalalalala thing going on... whateves.

Like I said, I can admit when I am wrong with no prblem.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Only he obviously didn't state "that young children should not be exposed to gays". He stated that they shouldn't be exposed to the notion of homosexuality. You even specifically mentioned that it was "homophobic", which it would be.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Only he obviously didn't state "that young children should not be exposed to gays". He stated that they shouldn't be exposed to the notion of homosexuality.

Ah.. I see...



Also... You claimed "He said nothing of the sort" so, even if your above distinction was meaningful (it isn't) you were still wrong.

 

[warpus]

I disagree. It seems to me that it is the same sort of excessive fear of [whatever] taken to an extreme where it influences behavior far beyond what is warranted as any other phobia.

Nah man, homophobia ain't a phobia. It's more in the camp of things like racism and bigotry rather than a fear of spiders or door knobs or fans on at night or whatever. It just has that "phobia" suffix, but that doesn't make it an actual phobia. There are many ways of manifesting homophobia, and an actual fear of homosexuals is not only a potential part of it... whereas for example arachnophobia is 100% about the fear of spiders.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Ah.. I see...



Also... You claimed "He said nothing of the sort" so, even if your above distinction was meaningful (it isn't) you were still wrong.

Only he didn't state anything fo the sort. Now did he?

Stating that young children shouldn't be exposed to sexual matters is something which is a quite common opinion among many people, and is by no means "erroneous and homophobic".

OTOH I would certainly agree, and he probably would too, that stating that they should be prohibited from any contact with people known to be gay is quite homophobic.

This is an obvious strawman of his statement.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Only he obviously didn't state "that young children should not be exposed to gays".

Also, what about this? (which I also linked to):

... Perhaps this is more obvious in the case of the boy scouts being forced to include homosexual team leaders, which really is not a good idea given some parents and kids may feel they are not now comfortable to use that service

Well, why would a small boy be uncomfortable with a homosexual doctor?

In theory it is the same. In theory the other person is just there as a doctor.

Yet a small child is not something to play theories on the back of. They tend to be in a very intense situation emotionally, and it is better to not take chances if not needed...

... However i noted that small children are not viewing things in an adult manner, and sexual things often indeed are experienced with very intense emotions from early puberty children, such as those in the summer camps or doctor appointments mentioned. A child is not really going to bother with statistics if he/she has heard that some adult there is homosexual. Yeah, that may be massively unfair to the homosexual person, but at worst it will be an issue of hurting his/her emotions. In the case of a child it can be a lot more serious than that given the state in life the child is.

Not sure why you deny that children have to be far more protected than any adult? Eg when i realise a person in some place i am in is homosexual i could not care less, but i am 36 and not in a position of weakness anyway, let alone not being in a critical stage of my development like an early-puberty kid is. The dynamic is not the same with a 13year old boy and a camp leader, or a doctor, surely? Figures of some authority are always dangerous even without playing with theories about them.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Do "actual" phobias only manifest as blind panic though?

"Blind panic" might be too strong a way of putting it, but still. I don't see hatred or dislike as the same thing as fear.

 

[Kyriakos]

Also, what about this? (which I also linked to):

Eh, maybe try some quote from 2013 as well, you know

And it doesn't help your claim either, given that was not about pre-puberty people iirc, but teens, so it has no relation, and it was not about telling teens that homosexuals do exist (duh, i am sure they would have known by then).
Whereas this thread had a discussion about presenting info on sexual matters on all themes. Some (granted, very very few) people happen to be hermaphroditic, do you suggest a 4-year old should be told that and it will help that 4-year old in some way? Likewise it won't help telling a kid about stuff he/she would not have any non-imaginary/made-up basis of forming an impression, so that risks the kid just creating a potentially dangerous fantasy.

In fact if you were not as busy trying to ruin my bid for president of the EU with this mud-slinging, you would have noticed my discussion with Forma about religious matters also being dangerous to speak to 4-year olds or any small kid about, for the same reason (they will form some unrealistic basis on what all that unknown info is about).

Nice try, but i will still try to pick up my campaign, to win EU leader and banish Germany (and divide it to 4 parts or something). Here comes the Somme (song pun) indeed...

 

[ParkCungHee]

Another one of those WEIRD studies, huh?

The WEIRDest of the WEIRD.

http://heterodoxacademy.org/2015/09/14/bbs-paper-on-lack-of-political-diversity/

2. Psychology is less politically diverse than ever

3.1. Risk point 1: Liberal values and assumptions can become embedded into theory and method

3.2. Risk point 2: Researchers may concentrate on topics that validate the liberal progress narrative and avoid topics that contest that narrative

3.3. Risk point 3: Negative attitudes regarding conservatives can produce a psychological science that mischaracterizes their traits and attributes.

 

[cardgame]

Everyone knows reality has a liberal bias.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Did some conservative psychologist sneak in a paper when nobody was looking?

I presume he was conservative because he conflates liberals with Democrats and thinks he is being discriminated against.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Nah man, homophobia ain't a phobia. It's more in the camp of things like racism and bigotry rather than a fear of spiders or door knobs or fans on at night or whatever. It just has that "phobia" suffix, but that doesn't make it an actual phobia. There are many ways of manifesting homophobia, and an actual fear of homosexuals is not only a potential part of it... whereas for example arachnophobia is 100% about the fear of spiders.

See, I would say that homophobia is just one possible factor leading to bigoted behavior. Just like some racists are motivated by fear, while others aren't. The excessive slinging around of the word as if everyone with a prejudice against gays is motivated by homophobia is a clear misuse of the word, but doesn't mean the word has no place.

There does seem to be a lack of a comparable word to 'racist' though.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Gayist. There, sorted.

(not to be confused with gayest of course)

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is always good to use widely accepted definitions instead of trying to argue semantics.

Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).[1][2][3] It can be expressed as antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, or hatred, may be based on irrational fear, and is sometimes related to religious beliefs.[4]

Homophobia is observable in critical and hostile behavior such as discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientations that are non-heterosexual.[1][2] Recognized types of homophobia include institutionalized homophobia, e.g. religious homophobia and state-sponsored homophobia, and internalized homophobia, experienced by people who have same-sex attractions, regardless of how they identify. Forms of homophobia toward identifiable LGBT social groups have similar yet specific names: lesbophobia – the intersection of homophobia and sexism directed against lesbians, biphobia – towards bisexuality and bisexual people, and transphobia, which targets transsexualism, transsexual and transgender people, and gender variance or gender role nonconformity.[1][3][5]

In the USA, according to the 2010 Hate Crimes Statistics released by the FBI National Press Office, 19.3 percent of hate crimes across the United States "were motivated by a sexual orientation bias."[6] Moreover, in a Southern Poverty Law Center 2010 Intelligence Report extrapolating data from fourteen years (1995–2008), which had complete data available at the time, of the FBI's national hate crime statistics found that LGBT people were "far more likely than any other minority group in the United States to be victimized by violent hate crime."[7]

The anxiety of heterosexual individuals (particularly adolescents whose construction of heterosexual masculinity is based in part on not being seen as gay) that others may identify them as gay[68][69] has also been identified by Michael Kimmel as an example of homophobia.[70] The taunting of boys seen as eccentric (and who are not usually gay) is said to be endemic in rural and suburban American schools, and has been associated with risk-taking behavior and outbursts of violence (such as a spate of school shootings) by boys seeking revenge or trying to assert their masculinity.[71] Homophobic bullying is also very common in schools in the United Kingdom.[72]

In some cases, the works of authors who merely have the word "Gay" in their name (Gay Talese, Peter Gay) or works about things also contain the name (Enola Gay) have been destroyed because of a perceived pro-homosexual bias.[73]

In the United States, attitudes about people who are homosexual may vary on the basis of partisan identification. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to have negative attitudes about people who are gay and lesbian, according to surveys conducted by the National Election Studies from 2000 through 2004. This disparity is shown in the graph on the right, which is from a book published in 2008 by Joseph Fried. The tendency of Republicans to view gay and lesbian people negatively could be based on homophobia, religious beliefs, or conservatism with respect to the traditional family.[74]

So if individuals merely view homosexuals negatively, they may not be homophobic. They may just personally not want to associate with them for some weird reason. But if they exhibit prejudicial or discriminatory behavior towards them, such as trying to stop Congress from passing laws which prohibit their discrimination, it seems pretty clear to me that they are indeed homophobic.

 

[warpus]

The excessive slinging around of the word as if everyone with a prejudice against gays is motivated by homophobia is a clear misuse of the word

This is how languages evolve though - even though the word ends in 'phobia', a homophobia is not necessarily a phobia. .. but it can be one.