Two scales, one for measuring attitudes toward the fear of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and one for measuring attitude toward homosexuality, were constructed using Thurstone's method of equal-appearing intervals. After construction, the scales were given to 528 students at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1985 to determine their respective reliabilities. Factor analyses were also done to determine what factors underlie the attitudes measured by the two scales and to determine if fear of AIDS and homophobia are in fact simply two facets of the same attitude: fear of homosexuals. The results indicated high reliabilities of both scales and a relatively low correlation between the two scales suggesting that the scales do measure different attitudes.

During the fall of 1985, over 500 introductory psychology students participated in a survey which employed different questionnaires to measure Fear of AIDS, Knowledge of AIDS, Homophobia, and Behavior Change. Opinions about public policy regarding AIDS and homosexuals, and background information such as sex and religious preference were also obtained. The results indicated that males who knew the most about AIDS were less fearful of the disease than were males who knew the least. No such relationship was found for females. In addition, respondents reported that they have been changing their behavior in light of the AIDS epidemic. This included some behaviors which were related to AIDS and some which were not. Finally, political and religious conservatives were generally more homophobic and fearful of AIDS than were liberals. In addition, conservatives generally preferred protection of the public as an approach to controlling the AIDS epidemic while liberals generally preferred to educate the public.

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