Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Bisexual People and Bisexuality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Previous meta-analyses have examined gender differences in people's attitudes toward lesbian/gay sexualities, finding that, overall, men hold more homonegative attitudes than women (Kite et al., 2021; Petersen & Hyde, 2011). Bisexuality scholars have suggested a similar gender difference in attitudes toward bisexuality (Dyar & Feinstein, 2018). This study is the first meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of gender differences in attitudes toward bisexual people and bisexuality. We synthesized findings from 61 studies (including 10 unpublished papers) from 1999 to 2022 that reported on 77 samples of 32,010 participants (14,359 men and 17,651 women). Overall, men held more binegative attitudes than women, g = 0.19 (95% CI = 0.14, 0.25). This effect was moderated by target gender: men were more binegative than women when considering male bisexuality, g = 0.27 (95% CI = 0.20, 0.35); the effect was substantially smaller when considering female bisexuality, g = 0.10 (95% CI = 0.03, 0.16). In addition, heterosexual men were more binegative than heterosexual women, g = 0.26 (95% CI = 0.19, 0.33), while gay men's and lesbian women's attitudes toward bisexuality were similar, g = 0.04 (95% CI = -0.09, 0.16). Overall, these meta-analytic findings indicate that men, particularly heterosexual men, hold more binegative attitudes than women, especially toward male bisexuality. Given the pervasiveness of binegativity, interventions are needed to improve attitudes toward bisexuality, particularly men's attitudes toward bisexuality.