Belief in biological causes greatly reduces blame of homosexuals except among authoritarians

Evidence

Beyond these effects, however, the scientific evidence indicating that sexual orientation might be determined before one is born (e.g., LeVay, 1993) has likely affected the attitudes of heterosexuals. In the fall of 1989 I briefly described the “fetal androgenization” theory (Brown, 1986, pp. 358-362) in a booklet administered to 372 Manitoba students. Then I asked them to indicate on a 0-4 scale “how blame-worthy, how morally at fault would a person be for being a homosexual” if this theory proved true? The mean was 0.43, with 74% of the sample saying “0.” As you would expect, however, some Highs still thought homosexuals would be morally at fault: 7 = .31. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3925

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates and refines vault theme that attributions of group traits as innate vs. chosen shape stigma — authoritarians persist in blame even given biological etiology.
• QUESTION: What mechanisms let authoritarians resist the moral-implication of biological determinism here? Worth chasing.