Homophobic people are more likely to suffer from mental illness
Write Xavier Lizarraga in your article The Hispano-American Archives of Sexology: "Homophobia, like any other phobia, is the manifestation of an irrational fear, under which an emotional conflict lies; consequently, we cannot help but consider and handle it as a disorder, as a condition, as a pathological expression«.
For too long, homosexuality has been focused on as a problem, treating it as a disease. In fact, homosexuality was on the list of psychiatric illnesses of the WHO until 1May 7th 1990.
Emmanuele A. Janini, Professor of Endocrinology and Medical Sexology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, ensures that «After discussing for centuries whether homosexuality could be considered a disease, for the first time we show that the real disease to be cured is homophobia«.
This claim is based on a study in which janini applied a well-known scale to measure the possible degrees of homophobia among 551 students Italian university students and crossed the results with measurements of other psychological traits. It found that those people who had stronger homophobic attitudes also scored higher in psychological traits such as psychoticism and immature defense mechanisms, while a secure parental bond was an indicator of low levels of homophobia.
Stupid people are more likely to be homophobic
Another study published in the journal market, By scientists from the University of Queensland, riding a Australia, homophobia would be linked to a low IQ. For the research, data from a survey carried out in 2012 by Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australian (Hilda) as well as the results of the same survey carried out in 2015.
In this, more than 11.500 Australians whether or not they agreed with equal rights for the community LGBTI. Respondents were also put to the test in three cognitive tests: one that is usually used in patients with dementia and that measures intelligence based on IQ, another that calculates brain damage from an injury or disease, and a memory test. Those who were against homosexuals showed impairments in their verbal language and other abilities. They also demonstrated a lower educational level.
It was then concluded that people with the least IQ were those who disagreed the most with equal rights for homosexuals and those who were most prejudiced against this community. "There are well-known correlations between low cognitive ability and support for disruptive or unequal attitudes "the research authors stated, adding that «Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, if underestimated, role in prejudice«.
