Heterosexuals' attitudes toward bisexual men and women in the United States

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2002 by Gregory M. Herek

Interview Procedure

Interviews were conducted by the staff of the Survey Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley between September 1998 and May 1999, using their computer-assisted telephone interviewing system. No limit was set on the number of recontact attempts for each telephone number. The median duration of the interview was 44 minutes.

Measures

Attitudes Toward Bisexual Men and Women

Attitudes toward bisexual men and women were measured with 101-point feeling thermometers, which have been widely used in survey research (e.g., Herek & Capitanio, 1999b; Sapiro, Rosenstone, Miller, & the National Election Studies, 1998). Higher ratings (maximum = 100) indicate warmer, more favorable feelings toward the target whereas lower ratings (minimum = 0) indicate colder, more negative feelings. The instructions for the feeling thermometers were: "These next questions are about some of the different groups in the United States. I'll read the name of a group and ask you to rate the group on a thermometer that runs from zero (0) to one hundred (100). The higher the number, the warmer or more favorable you feel toward that group. The lower the number, the colder or less favorable you feel. If you feel neither warm nor cold toward them, rate that group a fifty (50)."

Attitudes Toward Other Groups

The thermometers for bisexuals were embedded in a longer series of feeling thermometers that were grouped by topic in the following order: (a) religious groups ("Protestants," "Catholics," "Jews"); (b) gay people ("men who are homosexual," "women who are lesbian or homosexual"); (c) "people who inject illegal drugs"; (d) "people with AIDS"; (e) racial, ethnic, and national groups ("Blacks," "Mexican Americans," "Puerto Ricans," "Whites," "Haitians"); (f) bisexuals ("bisexual men," "bisexual women"); and (g) groups defined by their stance on abortion rights ("people who call themselves pro-life and are opposed to abortion," "people who call themselves pro-choice and support abortion rights").

For the racial-ethnic thermometers, respondents rated their own group after they rated the other racial and ethnic groups. Within the gay, bisexual, and abortion thermometer groups, item order was randomized (e.g., one half of respondents rated "bisexual women" first and the remainder rated "bisexual men" first). Randomization was independent across groups (e.g., the order of thermometers in the gay series was unrelated to the order of the bisexual series). Responses to the bisexual thermometers did not vary by order of administration.

Demographic, Social, and Psychological Correlates

Respondents were asked their age, educational level, marital status, number of children, current employment status, and household income for the previous year. As detailed below, the survey also included questions about area of residence, political and religious variables, gender and sexual attitudes, and personal contact with lesbians and gay men.

Residence. Respondents were categorized into five geographic regions based on their residence in the 48 contiguous states: Northeast (New England and Mid-Atlantic states), South (Southeastern and Southern states), Midwest (Midwestern and Plains states), Mountain (Rocky Mountain and Southwestern states), and Pacific Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington). Respondents were also asked to characterize their current residence location as a large city, small city, suburban area, small town, or rural area.