Sex differences in heterosexuals' attitudes toward homosexuals: It depends upon what you ask

During the past decade and a half, a great deal of research has been focused on the personaUty and demographic factors related to heterosexuals' attitudes toward homosexuaUty (e.g., Herek, 1984). One demographic factor that has been consistently Unked to these attitudes is sex of respondent. In her metaanalysis of 24 studies of sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuals, Kite (1984) found that men score an average of .21 standard deviations more negatively than do women. However, Kite also noted that most researchers did not distinguish between male and female homosexuals as targets of these attitudes and that the few that did make the distinction suggested that people hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuals of their own sex. Another issue related to the assessment of attitudes toward homosexuals is