The blame game: Cervical cancer, knowledge of its link to human papillomavirus and stigma

Abstract

This two-study paper examined stigma toward women with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection (STI). For Study 1, participants (N = 352) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which they read a brief description of a patient with either cervical or ovarian cancer in which the cause of the patient’s cancer was either specified (cervical: HPV, a STI vs. ovarian: family history) or unspecified. Participants in the cervical cancer/cause-specified condition rated the patient as more dirty, dishonest and unwise, and reported feeling more moral disgust and ‘grossed out’ than participants in the cervical cancer/cause-unspecified condition. For Study 2, participants (N = 126) were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a patient with cervical cancer in which the cause of cancer was either specified or unspecified. Consistent with Study 1, participants in the cause-specified condition rated the patient as more unwise, and reported feeling more moral disgust and ‘grossed out’ than participants in the cause-unspecified condition. These effects were mediated by attributions of blame toward the patient. Findings suggest that women with cervical cancer may be stigmatised and blame may play a role in this process.

Keywords:

• stigma
• cervical cancer
• human papillomavirus
• sexually transmitted disease
• emotion
• blame

Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Women’s Health research team (Catherine Asistores, Kaleigh Becker, Meghan Brown, Rachel Conway, Erin Christopher, Courtney Costantino, Marcia Crandall, Stephanie Hale, Maren Hayes, Jennifer Klama, Kristen Laster, Matti Perez-Cubas, Ariella Price, Jessica Ramos, Elizabeth Reilly, Koleta Rimasauskaite, Erin Reynolds, Amy Siegel and Hannah Vargas) for their assistance with data collection.