{"id":963,"date":"2023-07-02T19:25:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T19:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=963"},"modified":"2024-08-01T10:51:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T10:51:59","slug":"the-remarkable-decline-of-homophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/02\/the-remarkable-decline-of-homophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Remarkable Decline of Homophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article is an excerpt from the manuscript of Probably Overthinking It<\/em>, available from the University of Chicago Press<\/strong><\/a> and from Amazon<\/strong><\/a> and, if you want to support independent bookstores, from Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

[This excerpt is from a chapter on moral progress. Previous examples explored responses to survey questions related to race and gender.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The General Social Survey includes four questions related to sexual orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. What about sexual relations between two adults of the same sex \u2013 do you think it is always wrong, almost always wrong, wrong only sometimes, or not wrong at all?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. And what about a man who admits that he is a homosexual? Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or university, or not?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. If some people in your community suggested that a book he wrote in favor of homosexuality should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing this book, or not?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Suppose this admitted homosexual wanted to make a speech in your community. Should he be allowed to speak, or not?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    If the wording of these questions seems dated, remember that they were written around 1970, when one might \u201cadmit\u201d to homosexuality, and a large majority thought it was wrong, wrong, or wrong. In general, the GSS avoids changing the wording of questions, because subtle word choices can influence the results. But the price of this consistency is that a phrasing that might have been neutral in 1970 seems loaded today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nevertheless, let\u2019s look at the results. The following figure shows the percentage of people who chose a homophobic response to these questions as a function of age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    It comes as no surprise that older people are more likely to hold homophobic beliefs. But that doesn\u2019t mean people adopt these attitudes as they age. In fact, within every birth cohort, they become less homophobic with age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The following figure show the results from the first question, showing the percentage of respondents who said homosexuality was wrong (with or without an adverb).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    There is clearly a cohort effect: each generation is substantially less homophobic than the one before. And in almost every cohort, homophobia declines with age. But that doesn\u2019t mean there is an age effect; if there were, we would expect to see a change in all cohorts at about the same age. And there\u2019s no sign of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So let\u2019s see if it might be a period effect. The following figure shows the same results plotted over time rather than age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    If there is a period effect, we expect to see an inflection point in all cohorts at the same point in time. And there is some evidence of that. Reading from top to bottom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n