Political tolerance of homosexuals: the role of group attitudes and legal principles.

Individuals' attitudes toward and acceptance of general legal principles were assessed along with their willingness to extend application of these principles to various social and political groups, including homosexuals. Respondents then indicated their attitudes toward various social and political groups, including the groups to whom they had applied the general principles. Regression analyses were used to determine to what degree acceptance of the general principle and attitude toward the social group predicted application of the general principle to the group. For disliked groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis, individuals' acceptance of the general principle alone predicted the specific application. For homosexuals, however, the application of the general principle was affected both by acceptance of the general principle and by individuals' attitudes toward homosexuals. The implications of this difference in light of research addressing the cognitive and affective nature of attitudes and attitude change is discussed.