Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to further the work of MacInnis and Hodson (2012) and Hoffarth et al. (2016) by examining attitudes toward asexual people and correlates of those attitudes, including social dominance orientation and social distance. Several hypotheses were examined: overall attitudes toward asexual people would be more negative than attitudes toward heterosexual people and celibate people; there would be an interaction between the vignette characters sexual orientation and gender such that the most negative attitudes would be towards the asexual man and the most positive attitudes would be towards the heterosexual man; and more negative attitudes towards asexual people would be associated with social dominance orientation, social distance, and adherence to the sexual double standard. Attitudes toward celibate people were also explored. Participants read a vignette about a man or woman who was celibate, asexual, or straight. They completed the Dehumanization Scale, Attitudes Toward Asexuals Scale, Sexual Double Standard Scale, Social Distance Scale, and Social Dominance Orientation Scale. Data was gathered primarily from students at Indiana State University through online survey questionnaires. Participants were predominately cisgender women, heterosexual, and White. The straight male character was rated as having fewer positive human traits than the asexual or celibate male characters; positive ratings did not differ significantly among female characters. The straight character, regardless of gender, was rated as having more negative human traits than the asexual and celibate characters. Despite more positive and fewer negative human trait ratings for the asexual and celibate characters, people who endorsed greater social dominance orientation and social distance from asexual people had more negative attitudes toward asexual people. The present study contributes to our understanding of attitudes toward asexual people and some of the factors that may be contributing to those attitudes. This study also provides some initial evidence of attitudes toward celibate people-they may be viewed similarly to asexual people and more positively than straight people. Future research should involve more diverse populations, a religiosity measure, and consider the specific contexts of the dehumanization constructs and scale.

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