Abstract
In the current study, we sought to measure people’s implicit attitudes towards gay adoption. As of today, the review of the scientific literature has revealed little to no effect of parents’ sexual orientation on the long-term psychological well-being of their adoptive children. The belief that straight couples are much better at raising children is therefore likely to be derived from ideology rather than the best available evidence. We investigated people’s feelings on gay adoption. To minimize social desirability bias in participants’ response, the purpose of the study was obscured by distractor questions about other public policy issues and by using a between subjects experimental design. That is, each participant respond to only one form of the target question. Half of the participants were asked “If people who were raised in an adoptive family by straight parents are found to have an 18% higher rate of suicide than those who were raised in an adoptive family by gay parents….” For the other half, gay and straight were switched. We included measures of political ideology, which enable us to examine if heterosexist bias exists even among those who identify themselves as socially liberal. We hypothesized that participants assigned to the condition of the gay parents question would endorse more restrictions on parents’ adoptive rights.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Glenn Scheyd
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-12-2013 1:00 PM
End Date
4-12-2013 5:30 PM
Implicit Attitudes Toward Gay Adoption Through Public Policy Recommendations
Alvin Sherman Library
In the current study, we sought to measure people’s implicit attitudes towards gay adoption. As of today, the review of the scientific literature has revealed little to no effect of parents’ sexual orientation on the long-term psychological well-being of their adoptive children. The belief that straight couples are much better at raising children is therefore likely to be derived from ideology rather than the best available evidence. We investigated people’s feelings on gay adoption. To minimize social desirability bias in participants’ response, the purpose of the study was obscured by distractor questions about other public policy issues and by using a between subjects experimental design. That is, each participant respond to only one form of the target question. Half of the participants were asked “If people who were raised in an adoptive family by straight parents are found to have an 18% higher rate of suicide than those who were raised in an adoptive family by gay parents….” For the other half, gay and straight were switched. We included measures of political ideology, which enable us to examine if heterosexist bias exists even among those who identify themselves as socially liberal. We hypothesized that participants assigned to the condition of the gay parents question would endorse more restrictions on parents’ adoptive rights.
