Ideological Orientations, LGBT Contact, and Formation of LGBT Policy Position*

In: Social science quarterly, Band 100, Heft 3, S. 779-792

Abstract

ObjectiveWe seek to understand how political ideology and LGBT contact experiences exert influence on an individual's level of LGBT policy support.MethodsWe apply multivariate regression and posterior simulation‐based conditional process analysis using data collected from a recent national survey of 1,500 American adults.ResultsWe find that LGBT contact moderates the effects of individuals' political ideology on the formation of their LGBT policy preference in distinctive ways. Furthermore, such analytical results hold nuanced differences depending on the specific topic of LGBT policy in consideration.ConclusionThese findings are significant in terms of previous understandings of the contact theory of attitude change. Regarding the formation of policy positions, it is not simply contact, ideology, or the combination of the two that is influential. Instead, there appears to be a distinction in attitudinal valence toward what a specific policy represents, and thus the support for LGBT equality in that domain.