The U.K. is known as a tolerant and diverse country in today’s society. It has been one of the most widely recognised countries on striving for the acceptance for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT). Despite, the vital contribution of the LGBT people to our society, economy and culture, we must not become complacent and assume that these homosexuals have it easy. There has been a significant amount of statistical evidence that has found that homosexual’s still face a significant barrier in their everyday life’s to be fully accepted by everyone they face and the barriers that hinder in their participation in public life, success and happiness. One of the problems homosexuals face is homophobic hate crimes which very often leads to violence. There is a significant correlation found between the two. Generally, antihomophobic violence projects define violence as a psychological, physical or sexual threat or act which is directed and motivated by prejudice. Herek, (1992) proposed that homophobic violence is an extension of heterosexism. The abuse is from aggressive children, men and women (Gardner, 1995) who are alike and are claiming a right to regulate ‘non-straight’ sexualities through the threat and actual use of violence, whether it be verbal, physical and or sexual (Mason, 1996).
A LGBT survey report in the U.K. stated that In 2017, at least 2 in 5 respondents had experienced harassment and physical violence and more than 9 in 10 of the most serious incidents went unreported, this was often because the respondents believed that it was a reoccurring issue and ‘happens all the time’ (GOV.UK, 2018). Clearly, homophobia is an ongoing issue which needs to be addressed in order to reduce these negative stereotypes and prejudice others may feel towards them. We can accomplish this by using social psychological theories. Firstly, the Social Dominance theory can help explain that negative stereotypes, legitimising beliefs and overall a social dominant personality may be the key components to the causes of these violent episodes homosexual people encounter (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001). Secondly, the inter-group contact theory is used as a solution on how we can reduce prejudice, discriminating behaviour and violence within homosexuals. As figures demonstrate the issue clearly with a response of 40% of LGBT confirming they had experienced either physical violence or verbal harassment (GOV.UK,2018). We should tackle this problem we face of negative prejudice which can possibly reduce the overall figures of violence.
The social dominance theory helps explain how the processes at different levels of social organisations such as institutional discrimination, cultural ideologies, gender and age roles and the psychology of prejudice work together in order to express group-based inequality type of behaviours such as negative stereotypes or negative prejudice and discrimination towards the subordinate groups (Pratto et al., 2006). It was found that studies which investigated negative stereotypes of homosexual people found that heterosexual people viewed gay males to be sexually abnormal, perverted, mentally ill, and lonely (Simmons, 1965). Therefore, negative stereotypes can lead to prejudice and the legitimisation of violence and discrimination (Pratto et al., 1994).
Legitimising beliefs at the cultural level enable the maintenance of the hierarchal status quo (Pratto, et al., 2006.) One example of the negative cultural ideologies that society may derive from is via media representations of homophobic people. For example, Gay and Lesbian families are commonly misinterpreted in the media as society frequently equates social orientation with the ability to reproduce. This results in a lack of use of gay and lesbian characters as main characters in movies. They frequently play the role of stereotyped supporting characters or portrayed as a victim or villain which shadows a negative stereotype towards homosexual people (Mazur, M. A., & Emmers-Sommer, T. M. 2002). This suggests that cultural legitimising beliefs may be one of the reasons towards violence from homophobic people.
The social dominance theory is known as a multi-level theory and it attempts to explain how societies maintain their group based dominance. Society groups which are known as stable can be categorised into the group-based dominance hierarchies such as ethnic, religious, racial etc. These groups hold either a large amount of power or at least another group has very little power. For example, those who follow the religion of Islam believe that Islam views homosexual desires as an unnatural temptation and sexual relations are seen as a transgression of the natural role and aim of sexual activity. (Islam Question & Answer, 2018). This suggests that those who believe in Islam have a negative stereotype and prejudice towards homosexual people. As previously stated, Islamic followers are known as a religious group with group based dominance of having the right to feel as if they have unlimited power and judgement within their religious group for homophobic people. Therefore, Islamic people legitimise their feelings of homosexual people disregarding to their religious beliefs and these feelings have the potential to escalate into violent behaviour which in their eyes is legitimate towards the subordinate group which in this example are the homosexual people who receive little social recognition and are stigmatized thus leading the violence to become extreme.
The social dominance theory states that violence carried out by individuals have a social dominance orientation. Violence committed is known to be carried out at the individual level. Social dominance orientation is defined as the individuals psychological orientation and a measurable personality variable which predicts if these individuals prefer and endorse the hierarchies of the in-group or to reject the out-group. It was found that those individuals who endorsed in higher social dominance orientation were more likely to inflict violence and show low empathy towards the subordinate groups (Pratto et al., 1994). Schmitt & Writh, 2009 found that higher levels of social dominance orientation is expressed in men as oppose to women. This finding can correlate with evolutionary research which has found that men have inherited aggressive behaviour in order to gain a hierarchical status, gain better resources, fight other males in order to mate with other females and produce more of their own genes and protect their family (Buss, Duntley, 2006; Gat, 2010). This may suggest that men are more likely to engage in homophobic hate crimes than women.
As negative prejudice and discrimination grows according to the social dominance theory due to the individual, group and cultural factors, legitimate violent behaviour also increases towards the vulnerable subordinated which in this case are homosexual people. However, these behaviours are not legally acceptable and therefore should come to a stop according to the laws in the U.K. One method which has successfully helped reduce prejudice, discrimination and negative stereotypes is the inter-group contact hypothesis (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). The inter-group hypothesis was proposed by Allport in 1954 and aimed to reduce prejudice and intergroup conflict by instigating contact between the in and out groups therefore, the in group will have the chance to change their negative stereotypes by having first-hand experience with the out group eventually replacing their negative and incorrect beliefs with their actual understanding of the out-group as oppose to the cultural, group-based and individual assumptions. In order for the contact to be the most successful, it was stated that there are four main conditions that need to be met: 1) having an equal status, 2) having a common goal, 3) having inter-group co-operation and lastly 4) receiving support from authorities (Allport, 1954). Research suggests that having an Lesbian or Gay friend results in more positive attitudes towards homosexual people. A study which examined the relationship between the intergroup contact between adolescents and homosexuals found that intimacy of contact is related to the reduction of prejudice attitudes and behaviours (Heinze & Horn, 2018). Furthermore, more research found that positive contact could encourage advantaged group (homophobic group members) to not only support the disadvantaged group (homosexual group) but to identify with it too. Therefore a self-reinforcing process must be exerted for positive contact resulting in commitment to activism for the disadvantaged group increased (Reimer et al., 2016). To summarize the inter-group contact hypothesis as a method in reducing intergroup conflict, there has been a significant amount of research done to provide evidence that contact has the potential to transform negative ideologies to positive ones at the group and cultural level.
There is an ongoing debate on whether intergroup contact can potentially reduce social dominance orientation within an individual. The longitudinal effects of contact within social dominance orientation have been researched and evidence has proposed that sustained contact has the potential to reduce social dominance orientation (Dhont & Colleagues, 2014). One suitable intervention we can further propose for Allport’s inter-group contact theory to be effective is via education systems. A DCSF guidance is published and accessed by primary and secondary level schools. It allows the curriculum to prevent negative stereotypes and discriminating behaviour and attitudes towards LGBT people which eventually lead to homophobia thus violence and aggression. Therefore, educating children on homosexual’s and allowing them to have an understanding can prevent children developing strong assumptions on homosexual people and therefore, lead to an effective contact method. However, one concern in regards to the intergroup contact is that despite the effective research contact has found on prejudiced individuals. Those with extreme homophobia may struggle to have contact in the first place. Therefore, introducing educational and government interventions which an individual must enrol to can reduce these negative feelings. This was supported by research finding the effects of contact to be stronger when individuals have no choice but to interact (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006).
In conclusion, the social dominance theory helps explain key factors involved in why there may be an increase in violence towards homosexual people by homophobic people. It is proposed that reducing intergroup conflict and violence between homophobic and homosexual people is the first step and resolved overall by carrying out sustained contact between the in and out groups via interventions from education systems in order to achieve an equal, positive and supportive environment.