Stigma Controllability and Coping as Predictors of Emotions and Social Support

Abstract

Affective reactions toward eight disease-related stigmas and the intention to extend social support were examined in a simulation experiment. The onset of the stigmas was varied as being either controllable or uncontrollable. In addition, the target person was described either as actively coping with the stigma or as not coping. The research question aimed at exploring the effects of onset controllability and coping efforts on expectancies, blame, emotions such as pity, anger and social stress, and on the willingness to support the target person. In a within-groups design each of the eighty-four participants was confronted with all the eight stigmas under four different conditions. It turned out that both experimental factors elicited affective reactions and judgments to help. However, the coping dimension appeared to be stronger for most dependent variables. In addition, helping behavior was mediated by different affective reactions for disparate stigma groupings.