Honors Theses
Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
John Bruce
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
For my thesis, I conducted a study to investigate the nature of attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Throughout this work, I will cover the relevant information on the past and present of same-sex marriage, as well as a review of research done in the area of polling about it. The main focus of my research was to find out the underlying factors of opinions on homosexual marriage. Using polling data fi’om the 2009 General Social Survey, I was able to put together a series of regression analyses that tested the dependent variable, opinions about allowing same-sex marriage, with various independent variable, which were a set of demographic factors as well as other factors, such as political party affiliation, religiosity, tolerance toward issues concerning homosexuality, tolerance toward unpopular groups, and scientific knowledge, I did this to see if accounting for certain factors would render others insignificant in looking at opinions on same-sex marriage. I found that there is not one main factor that is mostly likely to influence opinion on same-sex marriage; rather all of the factors provide their own independent contribution to opinions. Each factor remains significant even after taking all of the factors into account. The nature of opinion on same-sex marriage is very complicated and is influenced by a number of different factors.
Recommended Citation
Patel, Khyshboo Bharat, "Attitudes Toward Gay Marriage: A Comparison of Competing Explanatory Models" (2010). Honors Theses. 2391.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2391
Accessibility Status
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