The Infection of Bad Company: Stigma-by-Association

1. The Infection of Bad Company: Stigma-by-Association John B. Pryor, Ph.D. Illinois State University United States of America Presentation at the 2008 European Association of Experimental Social Psychology Opatija, Croatia

2. My collaborators • Glenn D. Reeder • Andrew Monroe • Arati Patel • Briana Muehlbauer

3. Outline of Today’s Talk 1) What is a stigma? Some basic concepts. 2) A dual processmodel of reactions to stigma 3) Application of the dual process model to stigma-by-association effects 4) Study 1: Obese Relatives 5) Study 2: Smoking Friends 6) Study 3: Sitting with Black Guys 7) Conclusions

4. Goffman (1963) defined stigma as “an undesired differentness from what we had anticipated.” “By definition, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human.” “We construct a stigma-theory, an ideology to explain his inferiority and account for the danger he represents, sometimes rationalizing an animosity based upon other differences, such as those of social class (p. 5).”

5. Erving Goffman (1963) identified three basic types of stigma:- abominations of the body- moral character flaws- tribal stigmas

6. an abomination of the body Persons with Disabilities

7. an abomination of the body Persons with HIV/AIDS

8. an abomination of the body Obese People

9. an abomination of the body Persons with facial dermatitis

10. blemishes of individual moral character Persons with Mental Illness

11. blemishes of individual moral character Homosexual People

12. blemishes of individual moral character Drug addict

13. blemishes of individual moral character Smoker

14. tribal stigma of race, nation, religion, family, or other social group African American

15. tribal stigma of race, nation, religion, family, or other social group Japanese Korean

16. tribal stigma of race, nation, religion, family, or other social group Muslim cleric

17. tribal stigma of race, nation, religion, family, or other social group Mexican

18. All of these stigmas evoke negative implicit attitudes ABOMINATIONS OF THE BODY • persons with disabilities (Pruett & Chan, 2006) • people with AIDS (Neumann, Hulsenbeck, & Seibt, 2004) • obese persons (Bessenoff & Sherman, 2000; Wang, Brownell, & Wadden, 2004) • people with facial dermatitis (Grandfield, Thomson, & Turpin, 2005) MORAL CHARACTER FLAWS • persons with mental illness (Teachman, Wilson, & Komarovskaya, 2006) • homosexuals (Jellison, McConnel, & Gabriel, 2004) • drug abusers (Brener, von Hippel, & Kippax, 2007) • people who smoke (Pryor, 2007) TRIBAL STIGMAS • White Americans have negative implicit attitudes toward Black Americans (Kawakami, Phills, Steele, & Dovidio, 2007) • Japanese have negative implicit attitudes toward Koreans and visa versa (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) • Christians have negative implicit attitudes toward Muslims (Park, Felix, & Lee, 2007) • Hispanics have negative implicit attitudes toward other Hispanics who have a darker skin color (Uhlmann, Dasgupta, Elgueta, Greenwald, Swanson, 2002)

19. A Dual Process Model of Reactions to StigmasPryor, Reeder, Yeadon, & Hesson-McInnis (2004) Stigma Reflexive Processes Negative Affective Reaction evokes Avoidance Behavior

20. A Dual Process Model of Reactions to Stigmas Stigma Reflexive Processes Deliberative Processes • Attributional • Analyses • PC concerns • Ideological Rationalizations Negative Affective Reaction Positive or Negative Affect Approach or Avoidance Behavior Avoidance Behavior

21. Pryor, Reeder, Monroe & Patel (in press)

22. Goffman’s 4th Type of Stigma:“Courtesy Stigma” orStigma-by-Association Goffman theorized that stigma is spread by social structure associations. “Thus, the loyal spouse of a mental patient, the daughter of an ex-con, the parent of the cripple, the friend of the blind, the family of the hangman, are all obliged to share some of the discredit of the stigmatized person to whom they are related (p. 30).”

23. “Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias” “Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw (University) members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house. The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits.” Sam Dillon, February 25, 2007

24. courtesy stigma - acquired through social structure associations Spouse of Obese Person

25. courtesy stigma - acquired through chosen affiliation Friend of Smoker

26. courtesy stigma - acquired through chosen affiliation Acquaintance of a Black Man

27. How does stigma-by-association work?

28. Negative Affective Reaction Affect associated with automatically evokes A Reflexive Process

29. Three studies, three stigmas:ObesitySmokingRace Some common elements: Use of Affective Misattribution Procedure to measure implicit anti-stigma attitudes Measurement of explicit attitudes with feeling thermometers & Likert scales Measurement of PC concerns

30. Some hypotheses • Stigma-by-association effects are driven by reflexive processes • The potential for stigma-by-association is related to the strength of implicit attitudes evoked by a stigma • Explicit stigma-related attitudes will not be connected to stigma-by-association effects • PC concerns will be connected to explicit, but not implicit anti-stigma attitudes

31. Study 1: Obese Relatives

32. Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP): Measuring Implicit Anti-Fat Attitudes • Before and after photos of 30 women taken from commercial weight-loss websites Make rating of pictograph before 1 second 1 second Make rating of pictograph after signal photo pictograph rating

33. Pleasantness of Pictographs

34. Measures of Explicit Attitudes • Feeling thermometers (0-100 favorability ratings) • Likert Scale (Crandall’s 1994 Anti-Fat Attitudes Scale) – examples: • “I really don’t like fat people very much” • “One of the worst things that could happen to me would be if I gained 25 pounds” • “Fat people tend to be fat pretty much through their own fault.”

35. Basic Procedure of Photo Rating Task Thin Relative conditions 3 sec. 3 sec. rating HeavyRelative 32 men were rated in 2 conditions

37. Study 2: Smoking Friends

38. Modified AMP: Measure of Implicit Attitudes toward Smokers How pleasant is the painting? 1 second 1 second How pleasant is the painting? signal photo abstract painting rating

39. Pleasantness of Paintings

40. Basic Procedure of Photo Rating Task Smoker 2 sec. 2 sec. rating Non-Smoker • Participants rated the attractiveness of • 32 men & 32 women • Half were accompanied by smokers & half • by non-smokers

41. Attractiveness

42. Study 3: Sitting with Black Guys

43. Measuring Implicit Anti-Black Attitudes with the AMP Make rating of pictograph 30 White Faces 1 sec 1 sec Make rating of pictograph 30 Black Faces rating signal pictograph

44. Pleasantness of Pictographs

45. Manipulation of Arbitrary Association Participants examined application file of applicant for an IT job.

47. * * * * * * Significant correlations with explicit attitudes

48. * * * *

49. Conclusions The ability of a stigma to “infect” associated others is related to the degree to which the stigma evokes spontaneous affect. Stigma-by-association seems to largely involve reflexive processes. The current studies examined individual differences in implicit attitudes as moderators of this process. Some stigmas may evoke spontaneous affect for almost all people.

50. Stigma-by-association is a well known phenomenon • "…and keep them (children) from all ill, especially the infection of bad company." John Locke (1632–1704) from Some Thoughts Concerning Education. • "Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company." George Washington (1732 - 1799)