PRECONCEITO CONTRA PESSOAS BISSEXUAIS: VALIDAÇÃO DA ESCALA DE BIFOBIA PARA O CONTEXTO BRASILEIRO

Abstract

Biphobia is the prejudice against bisexual people and it is strongly present in society. However, this phenomenon is still under studied, given the difficulty in measuring it. The current research aimed to validate a short version of the Biphobia Scale for the Brazilian context. We carried out the first study with 222 heterosexual Brazilians and found a unifactorial structure of the Biphobia Scale and its convergent validity with scales that measure beliefs and stereotypes about bisexuality. Study 2 was performed with 219 heterosexuals and showed the concurrent-discriminant validity of the Biphobia Scale with religiosity, right-wing authoritarianism, orientation to social dominance and sleepiness scales. Finally, Study 3 was carried out with 267 heterosexuals and demonstrated the criterionrelated validity of the Biphobia Scale through an experimental manipulation with a 2 (target gender: male or female) x 3 (target sexual orientation: bisexual, heterosexual or control) design, in which participants watched a video about an alleged teacher and assigned him a salary. The results showed that less biphobic participants attributed a higher salary to the bisexual target only when he was described as a man. Together, these results showed evidence of validity and reliability of the Biphobia Scale, which may represent a contribution to the field of study of biphobia by introducing an instrument to measure prejudice against bisexual people in the Brazilian context.