 Selectively liberal? Social change and attitudes towards homosexual relations in the UKAlan Collins, Stephen Drinkwater and Colin Jennings Rationality and Society, 2023, vol. 35, issue 4, 420-447 Abstract: This paper presents a model to identify why, for some, the expression of liberal attitudes towards the LGBT population may be strategic rather than sincere. We show that the British population displays considerably more tolerant views towards homosexuality compared to the end of the 1980s. However, there is evidence that this has slowed in recent years, especially in areas that have experienced the highest levels of immigration, particularly from countries outside Europe. We explain these changes with reference to two effects that immigration/multiculturalism may have – direct cultural and indirect political effects – the latter manifested in selective liberalisation such that for some members of the in-group adopting a liberal attitude towards a group that was once the salient out-group (in this case the LGBT population) generates greater benefits for the in-group by creating disutility for the currently salient out-group (in this case culturally conservative religious minorities and immigrants). We explore both influences using survey data and find strong evidence for the first effect and suggestive support for the second effect. Keywords: Immigration; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender attitudes; selectively liberal (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:35:y:2023:i:4:p:420-447 DOI: 10.1177/10434631231172386 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Rationality and Society |
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