The finding provides more evidence that the so-called “gay panic” defense - the assertion that a person’s sexual orientation can “trigger” a crime against them - is bunk. “In other words, it was not our highly prejudiced individuals who were experiencing a heightened physiological response to the images of same-sex couples kissing, it was everyone in the sample, even those with very low levels of prejudice.” “What is most important to note is that the responses did not differ as a function of self-reported levels of prejudice or self-reported levels of aggression towards gay men,” Blair explained. For instance, a 2008 study found that individuals who are more easily disgusted are also more likely to make unfavorable moral judgments about gay people.īut it was clear that the physiological reactions in the present study could not be explained by the participants’ sexual prejudices alone.
Previous research has found a strong link between sexual prejudice and the emotion of disgust. It could mean that they had an anxiety response to the male couples kissing and a disgust response to the disgusting images, but that physiologically, we could not tell the difference between these two emotions.” It could mean that participants found the images of male same-sex couples kissing to be equally disgusting as the disgusting images. “It is difficult to specifically state what this means. However, Blair warned it was difficult to interpret the finding at this stage. In both cases, these responses were significantly different than the responses they had to the neutral stimuli.”
“In comparing the salivary alpha-amylase responses of participants to the various slideshows, we found that participants had higher salivary alpha-amylase responses to the images of two men kissing and the disgusting images. The study was based on results from 120 heterosexual men (aged 18 to 45). Measuring levels of salivary alpha-amylase, a digestive enzyme that is associated with stress and is especially responsive to disgust, allowed the researchers to examine the men’s physiological reaction to the photos. “In between slide shows, we asked participants questions about their responses to the photos (not yet published) and we also collected saliva samples in order to assess salivary alpha-amylase in response to each slide show (the current paper).”
#Gay men kissing each other series#
“Participants watched a series of slideshows: male couples kissing, male couples holding hands, mixed-sex couples kissing, mixed-sex couples holding hands, boring images (e.g., paper clips) and disgusting images (maggots),” Blair explained. Consequently, we decided to begin the research by examining whether or not heterosexuals have negative responses to witnessing same-sex PDAs in particular, we began by examining heterosexual male responses to male same-sex public displays of affection.” “However, one of the factors likely to influence how individuals experience PDAs is the reaction that other people have to witnessing PDAs. mixed-sex public displays of affection for the couples in the relationship,” explained the study’s corresponding author, Karen L. “We originally were interested in understanding the health effects of same-sex vs. That is the surprising finding that was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Psychology & Sexuality. In heterosexual men, pictures of rotting flesh, maggots and spoiled food induce the same physiological stress response as pictures of two men kissing each other.