Study Shows Gay Is The New Black No Less



2009 January, 17th
Phil Butler
Phil Butler

prgoofy4After searching the world for today’s PR Goofs Winner for hours, I ran across perhaps the most rediculous scientific study release imaginable. At the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference in Blackpool yesterday researchers discovered that being gay may be the new black! Okay, let me clarify this for you. Occupational Psychology consultants Shire Professional researched a whole 60 people of diverse ages to discover that gay may be the new black!

Okay, maybe it is true that homophobia is as bad as racism was, or has been for so long, but testing 60 people to determine this? To be honest the most ridiculous part aside it came from a world renowned conference site, is that the leader of the researchers (only God knows why testing 60 people would take more than one) Dr. Pete Jones suggested on the one had that prejudice attitudes are difficult to measure, and on the other undertook a study with only a minimal cross section. Here are his exact words:

“Prejudiced attitudes are incredibly difficult to measure, as in today’s society admitting to racism, sexism or ageism has severe consequences.”Prejudiced attitudes are incredibly difficult to measure, as in today’s society admitting to racism, sexism or ageism has severe consequences.”

Okay, is it just me or is there something strange here. I mean, the study has only 60 subjects to determine something that supposedly effects the whole human race? The research leader admits it is difficult to measure and then goes on to suggest his subjects might be afraid to express their true feelings. What kind of tests were these again? No torture I hope.  I mean if something is difficult to measure, should there be more or less test subjects? Any way, He goes on to conclude:

“Without detracting from the seriousness of the prejudice that still exists against people because of their ethnic origin, the results of our study suggest that being gay or lesbian could be ‘the new black’ when it comes to being a victim of prejudice.”

Can I get some people, like 60 of you, to help me with a new study? Since the new black is gay, and there is noting taking the place of the new gay, can we discover if being a blogger is gay? Or perhaps being from Punjab is gay? Maybe Digg is Gay? I know, I have it! Public relations is the new gay because a team studied 60 people and found out that gay is really the new black (I wonder what the old black is?).

Do we need studies to tell us that we should not hate people because they are different? If we are going to do studies about prejudice, can we please do them with enough people, time and tools to make them credible? So, I may be wrong, but I think the BPS should up their game a little, at least in releasing news. Winner of the Daily PR Goofs Award – The British Psychological Society. Hey, who knows, the old black may be the new psychology! Question is, can we prove it with 60 people? Don’t we have more important things to do?

Maybe Joanna Colburn, Public Relations officer, British Psychological Society. (Tel: 0116 2529904, email Joanna.colburn@bps.org.uk) could answer these questions?

Source: Prejudice study finds gay is the new black

About the Author

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Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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