Anonymity and Anti-Gay Aggression in an Online Sample: The Effect of an Audience on Gender Role Enforcement

This study tested the hypotheses that 1) authoritarian and traditionally masculine men respond to depictions of male-male intimacy with anger, 2) this anger predicts aggression toward gay men, and 3) anonymity moderates this effect. Data from 978 men were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online participant pool and survey delivery mechanism. Results from SEM analyses confirmed hypotheses 1 and 2, indicating that traditionally masculine and authoritarian men experience anger in response to a video clip depicting male-male intimacy, b = .22, SE = .08, p < .01, and that this anger predicts greater aggression against a gay male target than a heterosexual target, b = .53, SE = .17, p < .01. The hypothesis that anonymity influences the link between anger and aggression was not supported. INDEX WORDS: Right-wing authoritarianism, Anti-gay aggression, Male role norms, Masculinity, Anonymity, Homophobia, Anti-femininity, Aggression ANONYMITY AND ANTI-GAY AGGRESSION IN AN ONLINE SAMPLE: THE EFFECT OF AN AUDIENCE ON GENDER ROLE ENFORCEMENT