# Homophobes aroused by gay porn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549 "2003-12-07T14:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9e8a1a/32.png) [@toque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toque)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/1 "2003-12-07T14:45:49Z")
I remember reading somewhere (probably on the internet) about a study where straight men of varying degrees of anti-gay bias where shown gay porn, and their sexual response to it somehow measured. Supposedly the most homophobic were the most aroused. Is this real or an urban legend? Does anyone have a good link to the study? I really want this to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/2 "2003-12-07T15:29:25Z")
[It’s true](http://www.apa.org/releases/homophob.html). ---
**Author:** ![DeathLlama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@DeathLlama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathLlama)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/3 "2003-12-07T16:08:55Z")
I’m just enjoying that there’s an “Index of Homophobia scale” mentioned in the article. ---
**Author:** ![toque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9e8a1a/32.png) [@toque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toque)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/4 "2003-12-07T17:23:24Z")
Thanks, **Otto**! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/5 "2003-12-07T18:29:30Z")
But bear in mind that the abstract indicates that one explanation for this result is that it may be an anxiety reaction, rather than suppressed gay desires coming out: > [@](#): > > Do these findings mean, then, that homophobia in men is a reaction to repressed homosexual urges, as psychoanalysis theorizes? While their findings are consistent with that theory, the authors note that there is another, competing theoretical explanation: anxiety. According to this theory, viewing the male homosexual videotape may have caused negative emotions (such as anxiety) in the homophobic men, but not in the nonhomophobic men. As the authors note, ‘anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection,’ and so it is also possible that ‘a response to homosexual stimuli [in these men] is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.’ ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/6 "2003-12-07T19:04:40Z")
That’s not surprising. I think the psychological term is called **projection**. Aren’t people who bomb gay bars, attack gay people, etc latent homosexuals themselves? Since that’s the case, I’d love to see Pastor Fred Phelps take that test !!! ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/7 "2003-12-07T19:22:30Z")
But, really, are all homosexuals just deeply repressed homophobes? ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/8 "2003-12-07T19:28:08Z")
I saw a study a couple months ago, I can’t remember much of the details, except that it showed that most heterosexual females had a ‘pleasant’ or ‘nice’ reaction to a picture of attractive women, whereas when heterosexual men were exposed to similar pictures of attractive men, the non-homophobes stated that they had no real emotional reaction, but subconciously, the psychologists were able to monitor their brain-wave patterns, nearly all the men had the fear/anger/competition areas of their brain light up brilliantly. The doctors theorized that most men viewed attractive members of the same sex with more hostility than women did, because for men, sex is more tied in to competition, hierarchy, and dominance, whereas for women, sex is more about happiness. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_Sandwhich)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/9 "2003-12-07T19:31:35Z")
Exactly where is the “competition” area of a person’s brain located, myles? ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/10 "2003-12-07T19:57:13Z")
Again, I am not a specialist in the field of sex psychology, and it was almost a year ago that I heard it on an National Public Radio science commentary. So, the radio report could have been completely proven false in the subsequent time. ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/11 "2003-12-07T20:07:30Z")
Mr. Sandwhich, it’s difficut to explain in one or two sentences. Here’s a webpage that might help you out: [http://salmon.psy.plym.ac.uk/year2/aggression/aggression.html#brain\_aggression](http://salmon.psy.plym.ac.uk/year2/aggression/aggression.html#brain_aggression) Happy Hunting! (it seems to be mostly focused in the hypothalamus and amygdala) ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/12 "2003-12-07T20:11:19Z")
Here’s another helpful website on The Attraction-Sexual Arousal Link [http://www.uoregon.edu/~bfmalle/212/dante\_pap.html](http://www.uoregon.edu/~bfmalle/212/dante_pap.html) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/13 "2003-12-07T20:35:42Z")
Isn’t a degree of repressed homosexuality part of the clinical definition of homophobia? (Source: \*\* Culture of Complaint\*\* by Robert Hughes) ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/14 "2003-12-07T21:13:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by myles \* > \*\*I saw a study a couple months ago, I can’t remember much of the details, except that it showed that most heterosexual females had a ‘pleasant’ or ‘nice’ reaction to a picture of attractive women, whereas when heterosexual men were exposed to similar pictures of attractive men, the non-homophobes stated that they had no real emotional reaction, but subconciously, the psychologists were able to monitor their brain-wave patterns, nearly all the men had the fear/anger/competition areas of their brain light up brilliantly. > > The doctors theorized that most men viewed attractive members of the same sex with more hostility than women did, because for men, sex is more tied in to competition, hierarchy, and dominance, whereas for women, sex is more about happiness. \*\* Yeah, but I’ve seen (countless times) groups of women become very catty when a hot chick in ‘slutty’ clothes walks into a bar and turns all the men’s heads. ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/15 "2003-12-07T22:50:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krokodil \* > **Isn’t a degree of repressed homosexuality part of the clinical definition of homophobia? (Source: \*\* > Culture of Complaint** by Robert Hughes) \*\* Isn’t such a blanket cover statement, a scientifically nonfalsifiable hypothesis? Or else many people who spew hatred against gays, are not actually clinical homophobes? I mean, a person who suffers from agoraphobia, is not necessarily a repressed social butterfly, a person who suffers from arachnopohobia, is not necessarily a repressed arachnophone, so why should homosexuality be any different? ---
**Author:** ![CadburyAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@CadburyAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CadburyAngel)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/16 "2003-12-07T23:06:03Z")
The amygdala is also significantly related to fear mechanisms: rats with cauterized amygdalas will try to make friends with cats, and people with injured amygdalas do not respond to expressions of fear on the faces of other people. Keep in mind when reading anything on this topic that, in psychology, “arousal” as a term does not specifically refer to sexual feelings, but is broadly used when talking about heightened body functions such as heartrate and galvanic skin response. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/17 "2003-12-08T00:51:58Z")
The Skeptic’s Dictionary has a, er, lengthy [article](http://www.skepdic.com/penilep.html) about the device used to measure arousal in this study. Its validity appears to be controversial at best. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/18 "2003-12-08T01:55:29Z")
How exactly does the Index of Homophobia scale work? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/19 "2003-12-08T02:13:13Z")
**myles** The examples you gave are valid but sometimes there are behaviors similar to the homophobe / latent homosexual. How about “law and order” types being exposed as being rather disreputable folks? Remember Nixon and Agnew ? Then there are the pious types that condemn our straying from the paths of righteousness. Jim Baker? Reverend Jim Jones? Jimmy Swaggart? A great many people that are anti-alcohol, anti-drug usually are found to have drug and alcohol problems. ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549/20 "2003-12-08T03:26:24Z")
## quote: ## Originally posted by Krokodil Isn’t a degree of repressed homosexuality part of the clinical definition of homophobia? (Source: Culture of Complaint by Robert Hughes) **Myles asks** Isn’t such a blanket cover statement, a scientifically nonfalsifiable hypothesis? Or else many people who spew hatred against gays, are not actually clinical homophobes? I think it can be studied. For example you could survey a group of young people on homophobic tendencies then track them and the control for changes in sexual preference. Why not? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homophobes-aroused-by-gay-porn/217549.md?page=2)