A new study has shown that gay men tend to be less physically aggressive than heterosexual men.
The research, overseen by Stratford-based psychologist Tom Dickins of the University of East London (UEL), explores the differences in how aggression is expressed by people of different sexualities.
Aggression, Empathy and Sexual Orientation in Males is now digitally available to academics and will be in print early in 2006, in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
It concludes that gay men are no less aggressive than straight men, but tend to vent their aggression verbally rather than physically. It also indicates that homosexual men are likely to have higher levels of empathy than heterosexuals.
Mr Dickins said the study broke new ground in finding that sexual orientation had no bearing on indirect aggression, such as spreading malicious gossip.
Data was collected from 91 homosexual and 91 heterosexual men through an internet questionnaire.
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