Authoritarianism as Mediator of the Effect of Personality Traits on Students' Prejudices toward Homosexuals Cover Image

Autoritarnost kao medijator efekta osobina ličnosti na predrasude studenata prema homoseksualnim osobama
Authoritarianism as Mediator of the Effect of Personality Traits on Students' Prejudices toward Homosexuals

Author(s): Barbara Kalebić Maglica, Anja Vuković
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Personality Psychology, Studies in violence and power
Published by: Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar
Keywords: Big Five personality traits; authoritarianism; attitudes toward homosexuals;

Summary/Abstract: Negative attitudes toward homosexuals are just one of many that are often expressed toward various minority groups. There are numerous determinants of negative attitudes towards stigmatized groups, and personality traits are certainly one of them. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, authoritarianism and attitudes against homosexuals. The study included 583 students (443 female and 139 male) of different universities in the Republic of Croatia, with an average age of 21 years. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that examined the Big Five personality traits, an Authoritarianism scale and also a Scale of attitudes toward homosexuals. The results show a significant negative correlation of openness to experience and negative attitudes towards homosexuals and a positive one between conscientiousness and authoritarianism and the negative attitudes. Also, authoritarianism is a mediating variable in the relationship between openness and conscientiousness and attitudes toward homosexuals. The obtained results are discussed in the context of existing models and research results.

  • Issue Year: 25/2016
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 393-411
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Croatian