Biden was correct: Homophobia was more prevelant five years ago [View all]

[wyldwolf]

In January of this year, FOX TV announced they were phasing out gay jokes in their show Family Guy:

"If you look at a show from 2005 or 2006 and put it side by side with a show from 2018 or 2019, they're going to have a few differences," Sulkin said. "Some of the things we felt comfortable saying and joking about back then, we now understand is not acceptable."

Appel noted that the culture has changed since the Seth MacFarlane-created series debuted in 1999.

WAPO:

As recently as 2004, polls showed that the majority of Americans — 60 percent — opposed same-sex marriage, while only 31 percent were in favor, according to the Pew Research Center. Today, those numbers are reversed : 61 percent support same-sex marriage, while 31 percent oppose it.

In a study published earlier this year, Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor at Harvard University, investigated patterns of long-term changes in attitudes toward six social groups — the elderly, the disabled, the overweight, black people, people with darker skin tones and gay people — over a decade. Her research measured both explicit attitudes and implicit attitudes, through online implicit association tests.

While people may consciously report positive feelings toward a group in self-reported surveys, their implicit — or automatic, subconscious — attitudes might reveal a different bias. It’s the difference between the values we profess and what we believe is socially acceptable to say, and what we actually feel.

Between 2007 and 2016, Banaji found that explicit attitudes toward all groups became less biased. But implicit attitudes toward some groups stayed the same — including bias toward people with disabilities and the elderly. Implicit bias against people who are overweight actually became worse. Respondents became less biased in their attitudes toward race and skin tone.

But of all of the groups, implicit attitudes toward sexuality changed, by far, the fastest.

Forgive Joe for condensing several years of scientifically-backed data into a bumper sticker slogan. As Obama said during the 2008 campaign in response to petty attacks on him: It's silly season.

Hey Pete. Remember to thank Joe.