Table 3.
Predicting Implicit Attitudes Toward Gay and Lesbian Individuals Among Heterosexual First-Year Medical Studentsa
| Term | Standardized coefficient (β) |
Unstandardized coefficient (b) |
Standard error of b |
P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercept | –.02 | −0.41 | 0.02 | < .0001 |
|
Demographic covariatesb |
||||
| Male (vs. female) | –.12 | –0.11 | 0.02 | < .0001 |
| Black (vs. white) | –.02 | –0.05 | 0.04 | .25 |
| South Asian (vs. white) | .03 | 0.05 | 0.03 | .16 |
| East Asian (vs. white) | .01 | 0.02 | 0.04 | .62 |
| Hispanic/Latino (vs. white) |
.05 | 0.09 | 0.04 | .04 |
| Age in years | –.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | .73 |
| Contact | ||||
| Amount | .17 | 0.09 | 0.01 | < .0001 |
| Favorability | .11 | 0.08 | 0.02 | .0002 |
| Empathy | ||||
| Perspective-taking | .06 | 0.03 | 0.02 | .06 |
| Empathic concern | –.04 | –0.02 | 0.01 | .16 |
This model is based on data from the 2,044 heterosexual first-year medical students with complete data on all predictor variables from among the half of respondents assigned to complete the sexual orientation Implicit Association Test (IAT) as part of the Medical Student Cognitive Habits and Growth Evaluation Study (CHANGES) baseline survey in fall 2010. The dependent variable was an IAT D-score, for which lower scores indicate more bias against gay men and lesbian women.
Covariates were included in the model to show that the effects of empathy and contact on attitudes could not be explained by demographic differences in empathy and contact. Although demographic differences in attitudes fall outside of the theoretical scope of this report, the finding that women display more positive attitudes than men is consistent with some past results from non-medical samples.51,54