Crença no mundo justo, AIDS e câncer de pulmão: orientação sexual e responsabilização individual.

Abstract

The main objective of this work was to investigate the prejudice against homosexuals with HIV/AIDS, analyzing the Belief in a Just World (BJW) moderation effect on this phenomenon. Three hypotheses were tested: a) the responsabilization for the contamination would be stronger for homosexuals in comparison to heterosexuals; b) the responsabilization would be stronger for HIV/AIDS in comparison to lung cancer; c) participants with higher adhesion do BJW will consider more responsible homosexuals with HIV/AIDS than heterosexuals. In order to test these hypotheses, 171 psychology students answered a questionnaire with the BJW scale followed by a short story with a man saying that he was ill. For half of participants, this men was homosexual, for the other half, he was heterosexual; besides that, the illness was also manipulated: for half of participants, it was HIV/AIDS, for the other half, it was lung cancer. The multiple regression results show that the effects for the sexual orientation and BJW were not significant. Only the effect of type of illness was significant, indicating that men with HIV/AIDS were seen more responsible for their own contamination than men with lung cancer. The results also show the BJW moderation effect, indicating that for higher adhesion participants, homosexuals with HIV/AIDS were more responsible than heterosexuals in the same condition. However, for lower BJW, heterosexuals with HIV/AIDS were more responsible than homosexuals. Those results are discussed from the aversive racism theory point of view (Gaertner & Dovídio, 1986), emphasizing the importance of the inclusion the prejudice against homosexuals in the social psychologists agenda of investigations.