Abstract
Health communications are only effective if target audiences actually receive the messages. One potential barrier to effective health communication is the potential stigma of attending to health information, particularly for stigmatizing health issues. The purpose of the present paper was to examine when participants report self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, embarrassment) in response to health communications, as well as likelihood of reading health information associated with these emotions. Across three studies, participants read information about preventing diseases that are either highly stigmatized or non-stigmatized. Increased accessibility of stigma cues by (a) manipulating the perceived absence vs. presence of others, or (b) measuring lower vs. higher rejection sensitivity resulted in increased self-conscious emotions in response to information about stigmatized health issues. In addition, stigma cues decreased the likelihood of reading information about stigmatized (but not non-stigmatized) health information. Implications for health outcomes and intervention design are discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1860-1871 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Acta de investigacion psicologica |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2015 |
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Stigma Cues Increase Self-Conscious Emotions and Decrease Likelihood of Attention to Information about Preventing Stigmatized Health Issues. / Earl, Allison; Nisson, Christina A; Albarracín, Dolores.
In: Acta de investigacion psicologica, Vol. 5, No. 1, 04.2015, p. 1860-1871.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Stigma Cues Increase Self-Conscious Emotions and Decrease Likelihood of Attention to Information about Preventing Stigmatized Health Issues
AU - Earl, Allison
AU - Nisson, Christina A
AU - Albarracín, Dolores
PY - 2015/4
Y1 - 2015/4
N2 - Health communications are only effective if target audiences actually receive the messages. One potential barrier to effective health communication is the potential stigma of attending to health information, particularly for stigmatizing health issues. The purpose of the present paper was to examine when participants report self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, embarrassment) in response to health communications, as well as likelihood of reading health information associated with these emotions. Across three studies, participants read information about preventing diseases that are either highly stigmatized or non-stigmatized. Increased accessibility of stigma cues by (a) manipulating the perceived absence vs. presence of others, or (b) measuring lower vs. higher rejection sensitivity resulted in increased self-conscious emotions in response to information about stigmatized health issues. In addition, stigma cues decreased the likelihood of reading information about stigmatized (but not non-stigmatized) health information. Implications for health outcomes and intervention design are discussed.
AB - Health communications are only effective if target audiences actually receive the messages. One potential barrier to effective health communication is the potential stigma of attending to health information, particularly for stigmatizing health issues. The purpose of the present paper was to examine when participants report self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, embarrassment) in response to health communications, as well as likelihood of reading health information associated with these emotions. Across three studies, participants read information about preventing diseases that are either highly stigmatized or non-stigmatized. Increased accessibility of stigma cues by (a) manipulating the perceived absence vs. presence of others, or (b) measuring lower vs. higher rejection sensitivity resulted in increased self-conscious emotions in response to information about stigmatized health issues. In addition, stigma cues decreased the likelihood of reading information about stigmatized (but not non-stigmatized) health information. Implications for health outcomes and intervention design are discussed.
U2 - 10.1016/S2007-4719(15)30006-5
DO - 10.1016/S2007-4719(15)30006-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 29809200
VL - 5
SP - 1860
EP - 1871
JO - Acta de investigacion psicologica
JF - Acta de investigacion psicologica
SN - 2007-4719
IS - 1
ER -