Psychological Reactions to Perceived Stigma

1. Psychological Reactions to Perceived Stigma MARIA DEL PRADO SILVAN FERRERO, UNED Madrid, Spain JOHN B. PRYOR & GLENN D. REEDER, Illinois State University, USA European Association for Experimental Social Psychology June, 2005

2. Stigma • “a person who is stigmatized is a person whose social identity, or membership in some social category calls into question his or her full humanity” (Crocker & Major, 1989).

3. Primary Research Questions for Today’s Presentation What is the role of onset controllability in emotional reactions to stigmas? How do different emotions relate to the approach/avoidance reactions to persons who are stigmatized that unfold over time?

4. Theoretical perspectives - people have both positive and negative reactions to persons with stigmas • Weiner’s (1993) attribution theory • Uncontrollable stigmas->pity->helping • Controllable stigmas->anger->not helping • Katz’s (1977) ambivalence hypothesis • Stigmas simultaneously evoke both revulsion and sympathy-emotional ambivalence.

5. Measuring Approach/Avoidance Reactions over Time Using a Computer Analogue

6. Mean Ratings of Personal Responsibility for the Onset of Stigmas Personal Responsibility for Onset Ratings of 15 stigmas selected using a pre-test: 5 controllable, 5 neutral, & 5 uncontrollable onset

7. Instructions to Participants Participants were instructed to imagine working with a variety of patients in a hospital setting. Transportation specialist Interviewing patients at intake

8. Participants’ experimental task Legally Blind Participants were asked to move a computer cursor toward or away from each patient’s picture to indicate how comfortable they felt in working with the patient. They were given 10 seconds to adjust the picture cursor distance. Distance was recorded in 500 ms intervals.

9. Approach/Avoidance Reactions to uncontrollable, Neutral and Controllable Stigmas over Time

11. How we measured specific emotional reactions to the 15 stigmas

12. Example of ratings participants made after the computer task

13. Condensing the emotional reaction measures • Principal components analyses were performed on the average ratings of the 19 emotions for each type of stigma: Controllable, Neutral, & Uncontrollable Onset. • Three factors emerged consistently: positive emotions, uncertain emotions, and negative emotions. Specific emotions that did not load consistently on the same factor across the stigma types were eliminated. • For example, pity was eliminated because sometimes it loaded on a positive factor, while other times, it loaded on a negative factor.

14. Emotional Reactions to Stigma • Negative Emotions: disgust, fear, anger, unsafe, irritation • Uncertain Emotions: uncertainty, anxiety, surprise • Positive Emotions: empathy, compassion, sympathy, care, tenderness, kindness

16. Correlations of distance measured at 500 ms. intervals (greater distance means more stigma avoidance)to self-reported emotions concerning neutralonset stigmas

18. Uncertain statistically significant in the first 1.5 seconds Degree of positive emotion is significantly correlated to stigma movement after only 500 ms.

19. Correlations of distance measured at 500 ms. intervals (greater distance means more stigma avoidance)to self-reported emotions concerning uncontrollable onset stigmas

21. Statistically significant in the first 3.5 seconds Only significant after 5 seconds Degree of positive emotion is significantly correlated to stigma movement after only 500 ms.

22. Correlations of distance measured at 500 ms. intervals (greater distance means more stigma avoidance)to self-reported emotions concerning controllable onset stigmas

24. Uncertain Never Statistically significant •Significant after 2.5 seconds •Much stronger connections to negative emotions overall Degree of positive emotion is significantly correlated to stigma movement after only 500 ms.

25. Summary of Study 2: Approach/avoidance reactions to perceived stigmas were correlated with a mixture of positive, uncertain, and negative emotions. • Onset Neutral (ambiguous): An initial relationship of avoidance to uncertain emotions followed by stronger connections to positive emotions. Also, negative emotions were progressively more correlated. • Onset Uncontrollable: An initial significant relationship of avoidance to uncertain emotions followed by stronger connections to positive emotions. Correlations to negative emotions were significant after a time, but much lower. • Onset Controllable: After a pause, positive emotions were correlated to avoidance and then progressively negative emotions were correlated as well. Connections to uncertain emotions were not significant.

26. Research Questions for the Future • What is ambivalence? Is it a mixture of positive and negative emotions? Is it a feeling of uncertainty? Is it both? • What is the difference between a negative emotion and the absence of a positive emotion when you examine self-reports? Is "I did not feel compassion” a negative emotion? • Is there a better measure of emotions than retrospective self-reports?