Every year, Pride Month demonstrates that our society has made huge strides in the acceptance of LGBT people. But the UEFA EURO taking place at the same time also shows that certain areas are lagging behind this development. Among professional players, the proportion of openly homosexual players is negligible – far lower than in the general population. Moreover, there are frequent controversies over homophobic chants or slogans, most recently in spring 2024 at the Viennese football club Rapid Wien.

However, if various surveys are to be believed, homophobic views are also becoming increasingly rare in the world of football. A study from 2012, for example, found that homophobia has no place in soccer for 93% of British fans. Georg Kanitsar from the WU Institute for Sociology and Social Research wondered about this discrepancy between surveys and real-life experiences: “There are two possible explanations for this: social desirability and pluralistic ignorance. We wanted to find out which of these is more likely.”

Which explanation fits better?

Social desirability is a common issue in social science studies: respondents often do not state what they really think, but what the interviewer probably wants to hear from them. Hence it may well be that soccer fans are far more homophobic than they dare to admit in surveys. Pluralistic ignorance, on the other hand, refers to the phenomenon that we humans often overestimate the uniformity of opinions in a group – and have reservations about going against this supposed group opinion: “In this case, it would mean that football fans and players think that homophobia is still the norm in soccer, even if they privately disagree,” explains Georg Kanitsar.

Together with Katharina Pfaff from the University of Vienna, he developed a study design to find out which explanation is more likely. They questioned 1,215 male soccer fans and players in the UK about their attitudes towards homosexuality in football - but with a twist. In addition to direct questions about homophobia, they also asked respondents about their perception of homophobia in other football fans. This makes it possible to work out the role that pluralistic ignorance plays in the answers.

To prevent social desirability in the answers, they additionally conducted a list experiment: In this, respondents were presented with a series of statements, one of which was "I think that homosexuals should not be professional footballers". Howerver, the list also included statements that asthmatics, people without a vaccination for Covid-19, doping offenders or people who are open to bribery should not be professional footballers.

Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with each of these statements individually, respondents only had to indicate how many of these statements they agree with. “This allows people to disguise their true opinion so they are more likely to state what they really think,” says Georg Kanitsar.

After conducting the surveys and a series of statistical tests, it became apparent that football fans are less homophobic than they assume themselves to be. Depending on the type of question, only around five to ten percent of them hold homophobic views.

Conversely, however, they believe that far more soccer fans – around 30 percent – have a problem with homosexuality in soccer. This means that pluralistic is the better explanation than social desirability.

“Such situations often occur when norms in a society change,” says Georg Kanitsar, explaining the result. “A lack of communication can lead to people underestimating or not noticing this change in social norms.”

Transparent communication is essential to speed up this process: “The more and the more openly such norms are discussed, the faster the picture changes. Positive role models are also of particular importance. If a few famous football stars come out, this change could happen very quickly.”

Details of the study and further information:

Kanitsar, G., & Pfaff, K. (2024). Is football coming out? Anti-gay attitudes, social desirability, and pluralistic ignorance in amateur and professional football. Social Science Research, 117.
Link to the study