Gender differences in attitudes toward bisexual people and bisexuality: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

Previous meta-analyses have examined gender differences in people's attitudes toward lesbian/gay sexualities, finding that, overall, men hold more homonegative attitudes than women. Bisexuality scholars have suggested a similar gender difference in attitudes toward bisexuality. This study is the first meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of gender differences in attitudes toward bisexual people and bisexuality. We synthesized findings from 61 studies (including 10 unpublished papers) from 1999 to 2022 that reported on 77 samples of 32,010 participants (14,359 men and 17,651 women). Overall, men held more binegative attitudes than women, g = 0.19, 95% CI [0.14, 0.25]. This effect was moderated by target gender: men were more binegative than women when considering male bisexuality, g = 0.27 [0.20, 0.35]; the effect was substantially smaller when considering female bisexuality, g = 0.10 [0.03, 0.16]. In addition, heterosexual men were more binegative than heterosexual women, g = 0.26 [0.19, 0.33], while gay men's and lesbian women's attitudes toward bisexuality were similar, g = 0.04 [−0.09, 0.16]. Overall, these metaanalytic findings indicate that men, particularly heterosexual men, hold more binegative attitudes than women, especially toward male bisexuality. Given the pervasiveness of binegativity, interventions are needed to improve attitudes toward bisexuality, particularly men's attitudes toward bisexuality. Public Significance StatementWe combined the results of previous studies on men's and women's attitudes toward bisexuality (the sexual orientation of being attracted to both men and women). Overall, men hold slightly more negative attitudes toward bisexuality than women do, especially when considering male bisexuality. This suggests that interventions are needed to improve attitudes toward bisexuality, especially how men think and feel about bisexuality.

Does exposure to continuous and fluid theories of sexual orientation influence heterosexuals’ evaluations toward bisexual or gay/lesbian people?

“…It is also possible that a ceiling effect was evident for women in our sample, who already tended to believe in the realness of male bisexuality, and thus movement on this dimension was only possible for male participants who harboured more doubt regarding the existence of bisexual men. This type of gender difference in attitudes to male bisexuality, where heterosexual men hold more negative attitudes than heterosexual women, has been consistently demonstrated in the literature (e.g., Manalastas et al, 2023). It should be noted however, that effect size for this finding was small and so the real world implications for countering men's bisexual stigma via priming with continuous accounts of sexuality necessitate further evidence to be quantified.…”

Bisexual Discrimination, Internalized Binegativity and their Impact on Mental Health

“…Consequently, bisexual people report a higher number of adverse psychosocial experiences, including daily microaggressions (Flanders, 2015) and interpersonal violence, such as childhood abuse, violence, and rejection by family and friends (Feinstein & Dyar, 2017;Johnson & Grove, 2017;Jorm et al, 2002). Previous studies indicate gender differences in binegativity, suggesting that bisexual men experience more binegativity than bisexual women, particularly by heterosexual men (Manalastas et al, 2023;Yost & Thomas, 2012). This can be attributed to two reasons.…”