An Experimental Test of Stigma Communication Content with a Hypothetical Infectious Disease Alert

Abstract

Recent interest in the role of communication in stigma creation, diffusion, and copying has inspired theorizing. This study presents the first empirical test of one model of stigma communication (Smith, 2007), with a hypothetical infectious disease alert. This study uses an experiment (N=333) to illustrate how changing several words and monitoring four cognitive and affective reactions and a personality trait becomes predictive of almost half (R ²=.49) of the variance in support for intervention policies, including removing and isolating infected persons, forcing treatment, and generating a publicly accessible map of infected persons. Message content and reactions also predicted perceptions of normative stigma beliefs toward infected persons (R ²=.26) and the likelihood of disseminating content of the alert to others (R ²=.15). Results generally support the model of stigma communication and indicate places for refinement.

Keywords:

• Stigma
• Stigmatization
• Experiment
• Infectious Disease
• Transmission

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to CIDD and CAS 555 (Health Communication) for their feedback on early analyses. This project was supported by Award Number P50-DA010075 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel A. Smith

Rachel A. Smith (PhD) is at the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, and the Methodology Center, Pennsylvania State University