Relationship between homophobia and empathy in young university students in northern Chile

In 2024, Chilean society is going through a process called “lack of civic empathy”, which favors the increase of prejudices and stereotypes towards certain minorities, such as sexual and gender minorities. In this sense, the objective was to establish the relationship between homophobia and empathy in higher education students. The design of this research is correlational, cross-sectional, and non-experimental, and included 222 male and female university students, to whom the Modern Homonegativity Scale (MHS) and Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis IRI) were applied. The results showed the existence of a negative correlation between homophobia and empathy, in addition to those identified as male scoring higher homophobia levels and lower empathy levels. This raises awareness and encourages the development of public policies or strategies to address these constructs, while also generating spaces that support the advancement of society.