Exploring the Underlying Social Conservative Mechanisms of Trans-Negativity

INTRODUCTION: The current study examines how conservative social ideologies and religiosity interact to predict lower levels of knowledge, social intolerance, and negative attitudes toward interacting with transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) individuals. METHOD: An online cross-sectional research was conducted between March 2 and June 2, 2021. Two hundred and sixty-six participants were recruited for this study. The mean age was 29. 30 (SD_ = 11. 98, age range: 18-60 years). The study used a between-subject correlational design. A multiple regression model was used to predict participants’ TGNB Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs from the other research variables based on the importance of associations. We examined our hypotheses regarding the moderating role of conservative values and political positioning on the linkage between religiosity and TGNB knowledge, social tolerance, and attitudes toward interacting with TGNB individuals using PROCESS (Model 1). RESULTS: This study’s results show that the conservative cis-normative system (i. e. , religiosity, conservative values, and right-wing political orientation) seems significantly linked to TGNB social intolerance. CONCLUSIONS: This study's findings suggest that a broader definition of conservatism encompassing conservative values and right-wing political orientation may be useful in predicting trans-negativity. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: The levels of social tolerance, acceptance across the gender spectrum, and attitudes toward interacting with TGNB individuals should be considered by those working to change the attitude toward TGNB people.