Article Critique #2: Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal? Kayla McCoy
University of North Texas
Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?
Summary
The authors of the article “Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?” Henry E. Adams, Lester W. Wright, Jr., and Bethany A. Lohr all collaborated efforts to test a theory involving homophobia. The article was published in 1996 to investigate how certain anxieties among heterosexuals who felt homosexual arousal lead to an overall negative feeling towards homosexuals, otherwise known as homophobia. They presented an experiment that could explore homophobia and demonstrate its relationship to homosexual arousal. In the study, researchers drew a …show more content…
The results satisfied the hypothesis on homophobia and homosexual stimuli and did not satisfy the hypothesis on aggression. Because the researchers chose to measure aggression through a subjective survey, they made their data vulnerable to false information. It is a great possibility that while taking the survey, participants tried to make themselves “look better” by denying their level of aggression towards homosexuals or rather “look cooler” by reporting a higher amount of aggression towards homosexuals than they actually show on a day to day basis. So in reality, there might actually be a correlation between aggression and homophobia, there just needs to be a more definite way to measure it. This is a question I would have liked to have seen addressed in the hypothesis. The hypothesis would have been better tested if aggression had been measured based on observable, measurable behaviour. This is also true for the subjective measurement of arousal each man reported when exposed to each video. For instance, reports on arousal for the heterosexual and lesbian video clips were consistent with recorded penile circumferences, but reports on arousal for the homosexual video clip was not consistent. This was probably due to falsely reported data by the participant. Furthermore, I also wish they would have included women in the hypothesis as well as the study. Even though they were focusing on the population of adult males, if the same question was proposed for women who fall in the category of homophobic, and the same research was conducted, we would be able to compare the results of the two to see if homophobia was a biological factor on the bases of human
University of North Texas
Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?
Summary
The authors of the article “Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?” Henry E. Adams, Lester W. Wright, Jr., and Bethany A. Lohr all collaborated efforts to test a theory involving homophobia. The article was published in 1996 to investigate how certain anxieties among heterosexuals who felt homosexual arousal lead to an overall negative feeling towards homosexuals, otherwise known as homophobia. They presented an experiment that could explore homophobia and demonstrate its relationship to homosexual arousal. In the study, researchers drew a …show more content…
The results satisfied the hypothesis on homophobia and homosexual stimuli and did not satisfy the hypothesis on aggression. Because the researchers chose to measure aggression through a subjective survey, they made their data vulnerable to false information. It is a great possibility that while taking the survey, participants tried to make themselves “look better” by denying their level of aggression towards homosexuals or rather “look cooler” by reporting a higher amount of aggression towards homosexuals than they actually show on a day to day basis. So in reality, there might actually be a correlation between aggression and homophobia, there just needs to be a more definite way to measure it. This is a question I would have liked to have seen addressed in the hypothesis. The hypothesis would have been better tested if aggression had been measured based on observable, measurable behaviour. This is also true for the subjective measurement of arousal each man reported when exposed to each video. For instance, reports on arousal for the heterosexual and lesbian video clips were consistent with recorded penile circumferences, but reports on arousal for the homosexual video clip was not consistent. This was probably due to falsely reported data by the participant. Furthermore, I also wish they would have included women in the hypothesis as well as the study. Even though they were focusing on the population of adult males, if the same question was proposed for women who fall in the category of homophobic, and the same research was conducted, we would be able to compare the results of the two to see if homophobia was a biological factor on the bases of human