Thursday, March 18, 2010

Sexual orientation and harm avoidance

I calculated mean harm avoidance scores as described in the last post by sex and sexual orientation. (N = 3,546, whites only)

Mean harm avoidance score

Males
Straight 11.18
Gay 10.97
Bisexual 10.82

Females
Straight 12.74
Lesbian 12.24
Bisexual 11.92

Compared to straight guys, gay and bisexual men have lower harm-avoidance scores (the difference is trivial, however). Lesbians and bisexual women also have lower means than their straight counterparts. The female straight-bisexual gap is about one-third of a standard deviation--a moderate difference. None of the female groups approach the low danger-averse scores of the male groups.

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