The Relationship Between AIDS-Related Information Sources and Homophobic Attitudes: A Comparison of Two Models

Using a sample of 914 college students from the Middlewest and West Coast, this research compared two possible relationships between information sources about AIDS and homophobic attitudes. The first model examined the effects of various information sources on students' accuracy of knowledge regarding AIDS transmission, subsequent beliefs that homosexuals are responsible for AIDS, and overall homophobia. The second model tested the alternative hypothesis that pre-existing homophobic attitudes affected the selection of information sources. This assortive process, in turn, was hypothesized to affect accuracy of knowledge about AIDS and beliefs that homosexuals are responsible for AIDS. The findings indicated the models had similar explanatory power, suggesting that information sources have diverse impact on students' knowledge about AIDS and that homophobic attitudes affect selection of information sources. The authors conclude that while certain information sources about AIDS tend to increase homophobic attitudes, homophobic individuals are also more likely to select these information sources.