Homophobia may be a product of mental illness, study finds

Homophobes may have underlying mental issues, an Italian study found. According to New Now Next, the researchers of the study wrote: "After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia, associated with potentially severe psycho-pathologies."

Researchers from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy found that people who had immature coping mechanisms tended to be homophobic. Even more significant, the Italian researchers also found a connection between psychoticism and homophobia.

Yahoo! clarifies that homophobic people are not psychotic, but they do have a personality trait called psychoticism. Pink News explains that people who have psychoticism are usually aggressive, angry and hostile towards others. In addition, the Italian researchers found that people with the personality trait have an increased chance of developing personality disorders like schizophrenia.

More than 500 students from the Italian University participated in the study, which was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 30 years old. The researchers of the study asked the participants to fill out a questionnaire, which assessed their coping capabilities, their aversion to homosexual people, and their attachment styles, reports Yahoo. Besides their levels of homophobia, the questionnaire also measured their levels of psychopathology, which includes depression, anxiety and psychoticism.

To measure their levels of homophobia, the participants were asked to agree or disagree with 25 statements on a five-point scale. An example statement would be as follows: "Gay people make me nervous."

Their attachment styles were categorized as either healthy or unhealthy. People with healthy attachments styles tended to be secure in their relationships and comfortable with intimacy towards others or towards themselves.

Meanwhile, those who had unhealthy attachment styles had insecurities in their relationships to the point that they might even avoid intimacy. People who had unhealthy attachment styles could also have an opposite reaction and become too clingy. In addition, they could also desire intimacy, but have difficulty trusting others.

Lastly, the volunteers were classified as having either mature defense mechanisms or immature ones. A mature defense would be to keep emotions in check and not seek validation from others, while an immature defense would be to respond with passive aggression.

After evaluating the questionnaires, the researchers found that homophobic people tended to have immature defense mechanisms and had a fearful-avoidant attachment style. Meanwhile, those that were less homophobic generally had better mental health.

Overall the study reveals that homophobia is a trait commonly seen in people with dysfunctional personalities, said Emmanuele Jannini, lead researcher of the study. She added that homophobia is a "culture-induced disease," which is affected by religion and conservative values.