Gay men vent aggression through verbals, not violence – new study

Young men can be aggressive - even during the season of goodwill. Now, a new study by University of East London (UEL) psychologist Tom Dickins shows how patterns of male aggression vary with sexual orientation.

According to the findings of the study, forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, homosexual men score higher for empathy and show significantly lower levels of physical aggression than heterosexual men.

However they do show similar levels of non-physical and indirect aggression, that is the ability to inflict pain while avoiding identification and counter-aggression, for example by spreading malicious gossip.

Dr Dickins' findings are based on data collected from an internet sample of two groups of 91 homosexual and 91 heterosexual males he surveyed using self-report psychometric questionnaires. The participants were recruited and interviewed online to ensure privacy.

http://www.physorg.com/news9280.html

and it could just as easily be environmental factors.

If you are a gender or orientation that is not the dominant, you use similar tactics.
In a matriarchal society, women utilize power in the same ways that men do in a patriarchal society. It has more to do with recognizing the limitations of certain methods of influence due to not being in dominance, and compensating by excelling through allowable methods for those not in dominance.

The same allowable methods would be utilized, I imagine, even in a monolithic group.

just my two cents.

As far at the dominant/non-dominant issue goes, I'm aware I've long used verbal tactics against opponents ... sort of a "if you can't bash 'em, baffle 'em" approach.

One of the common stereotypes of gay men are that they are "witty" and I think this study plays into that stereotype by saying gay men use their verbal skills against opponents rather than resort to physical aggression.

a shallow but useful example would be sports cars. In past generations, if men wanted to hook up with women, he'd buy a sports car. But NOW, you see a LOT more women driving the sports cars themselves, and foregoing the men.
(not a perfect analogy, but I'm making the point that the nondominant group still access power but indirectly. But once that dominance has shifted, they do so more directly)

so, in other words, I think its more a result of cultural dynamics than sexual orientation, EVEN THOUGH orientation determines to some degree the cultural dynamic.

but hey, I'm not an anthropologist...so what do I know?