Attitudes toward Homosexuals: Assessing the Structure of Prejudicial Attitudes and the Moderating Effects of Religious Commitment and Morality

Abstract

Homosexuality has been a topic for debate for quite some time in Ghana and a lot of negative sentiments have been expressed publicly about it. This study therefore examined the structure of prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuals and the extent to which these attitudes are moderated by religious commitment and morality. It also examined the role of attributions in determining attitudes toward homosexuals and how homosexuals in turn view societal attitudes toward themselves. To achieve these, three studies (Ns = 190, 183, 159) were conducted using mixed methods to gather data from students of the University of Ghana. Overall, participants were found to have prejudicial attitudes that are solely driven by stereotypic beliefs and moderated by religious commitment and moral values. Both Study 1 and Study 2 found that attitudes toward homosexuals are negative regardless of personal characteristics. Unlike was the case in Study 1, in Study 2, the attitude components were associated with each other and their effects on the evaluation of homosexuals were moderated by religious commitment and moral values. Additionally, evaluation of homosexuals was relatively more favourable in the post-test condition although still negative and the most favourable behavioural intentions were towards the vignette 3 person. In Study 3, it emerged from the FGDs that religion permeates all aspects of Ghanaians‘ lives although their religious commitment and morality is low albeit with justification. The negative attitudes found in Studies 1 and 2 were replicated here also as was the favourable behavioural intentions toward the vignette 3 person. The IDIs with homosexual students generally confirmed these findings. Limitations of the study and their implications for future research are discussed.