Same-sex marriage legalization associated with reduced implicit and explicit antigay bias.

ABSTRACT: The current research tested whether the passing of government legislation, signaling the prevailing attitudes of the local majority, was associated with changes in citizens' attitudes. Specifically, with ∼1 million responses over a 12-y window, we tested whether state-by-state same-sex marriage legislation was associated with decreases in antigay implicit and explicit bias. Results across five operationalizations consistently provide support for this possibility. Both implicit and explicit bias were decreasing before same-sex marriage legalization, but decreased at a sharper rate following legalization. Moderating this effect was whether states passed legislation locally. Although states passing legislation experienced a greater decrease in bias following legislation, states that never pas

SUBMITTER: Ofosu EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6500130 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature