Male homophobia, touch, and compliance: A matter of the touched, not the toucher

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to fulfill requests made by a stranger when he or she touches their arm or forearm slightly while asking. In Poland, however, where male homophobia is widespread, interpersonal touch decreases compliance when man touches another man. It has also been demonstrated in previous studies that highly homophobic male participants are especially unwilling to fulfill requests while touched. In this paper the hypothesis that also confederates' homophobia create an additional factor inhibiting compliance with request formulated by men touching other men was tested in two experiments. No relations, however, was found between confederates' level of homophobia and participants' reaction. © 2013, Versita. All rights reserved.