SANTA BARBARA, Calif- A new study says that people who are overly homephobic are probably just hiding their own same-sex desires.

The study, called "Parental autonomy support and discrepancies between implicit and explicit sexual identities: Dynamics of self-acceptance and defense," looked at the results of four other studies. According to the GoPride.com college students were asked "about their own same-sex desires, their parents' attitudes towards homosexuality, and then tested for implicit sexual attraction."

Science Daily says that this study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals. 

"Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves," explained Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study's lead author, to Science Daily.

The study was conducted by a team from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara. Their research will be published the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.