Psychoticism, immature defense mechanisms may be key risk factors for homophobia

A new study that investigated the potential of certain psychological traits for predisposing heterosexuals to have negative attitudes towards homosexual people found that psychoticism--which is present in severe psychopathological conditions but may also contribute to less severe states of hostility and anger--and immature defense mechanisms may be important risk factors for homophobia, while depression and neurotic defense mechanisms appear to lower the risk of being homophobic.

"After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia, associated with potentially severe psychopathologies," said lead author Dr. Emmanuele A. Jannini, president of the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine. The Journal of Sexual Medicine study included 560 Italian university students.