Lesbian = bitch? I've shown in recent posts that Mexican women and Jewish men rank the lowest in kindheartedness. Now, I'm wondering how lesbians do up against other sexual orientation categories. The General Social Survey asked 1,671 Americans how soft-hearted they are from 1 to 5. Here are the means:


Mean soft-heartedness score

Straight women 4.33
Homosexual men 4.16

All Americans 4.10

Straight men 3.88
Lesbians 3.73

Overall SD 1.04

Gay men are similar heterosexual women, and straight guys and lesbians are close, although the guys are nicer. The difference between straight and lesbian females is sixth-tenths of a standard deviation--that's large.

One more stereotype empirically supported.

Jewish men are the least kindhearted: In the last post, I was interested in bitchy women. This time let's do kind men. The General Social Survey asked 1,079 males if they were soft-hearted. I calculated the means for each ethnic group with at least 20 respondents, and listed them below:


Mean soft-heartedness score

Puerto Rican 4.35
Scottish 4.10
English/Welsh 4.08
French 4.00
American Indian 3.98
Mexican 3.94

All American men 3.92

Italian 3.89
German 3.86
Irish 3.85
Blacks 3.63
Jewish 3.55

Overall SD 1.08

There weren't enough cases of Puerto Rican women in the last post to include them, but they did have a high kindness score, just like the men here. Black men, like their female counterparts, are not nice, but the most interesting finding to me is Jewish men. Hollywood, for example, tends to portray Jewish guys as sensitive, Woody Allen being a great cartoonish example. But they are clearly the meanest bunch, according to these data. Perhaps Michael Savage is more representative. The distance between them and Puerto Rican men is three-fourths of a standard deviation--a large difference.