Schools of Thought: The Effect of Contextual Norms on Personal

Interaction

By: Michael Hickman

Abstract: Given that an individual’s basic beliefs are used to interpret the

behavior and appearance of others, any look into the context surrounding

the maintenance of those beliefs may prove invaluable. In an effort

to verify this, the question is asked: Controlling for other infl uencing

factors, does inclusion in a more humanities-oriented academic environment

result in a lower degree of homophobia in an individual? An

online survey was administered to a sampling of students at a university

in southwestern Virginia to work towards an answer to this question.

Preliminary testing did not support the hypothesis. Possible explanations

for the lack of support for the hypothesis will be discussed in the

conclusion.