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Within the United States, legalization for gay marriage has started to gain some ground. Even though just 14 states allow same-sex marriage, there has been a lot of support particularly by celebrities and America's youth. Several studies have attempted to research people's opinions about and association with sexual orientation in order to understand how people feel about the homosexual community. In a new study that compared old research methods to a newer model with even more anonymity for the participants, researchers have found that Americans might be less tolerable to the homosexual community than previously presumed.

"Comparing the two methods shows sexuality-related questions receive biased responses even under current best practices, and, for many questions, the bias is substantial," the authors wrote. The researchers explained that with old researching methods, people tended to answer in the way that they thought would be socially acceptable responses.

For this study, the research team from Ohio State University and Boston University decided to compare two methods of measuring sexual orientation. The team incorporated the standard method that has been used by other studies and a new version that promised the participants that their answers would never be connected to them.  These surveys asked 2,516 American participants about their sexual orientation, any same-sex experiences and opinions about the homosexual community.

The researchers found that with the newer method that had more anonymity, 65 percent of the people were more likely to report that they have a "non-heterosexual identity." The team also found that this group was 59 percent more likely to admit that they have had some kind of same-sex experience. When it came to anti-gay sentiments, the researchers calculated that participants using the newer testing method were 67 percent more likely to disprove of an openly gay manager in the workforce. 71 percent of them also reported that they believed discrimination against lesbians, gays and bisexuals would be okay.

The researchers believe that by promising participants that their answers would and could never be tied to them, the newer research method yielded more honest answers. However, the team could not statistically determine if the answers were any truer under anonymity. The study was published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.