Courtesy Stigma: The Social Implications of Associating with a Gay Person

Abstract

We investigated the operation of courtesy stigma with American male college students who reacted to a fictitious male student described as gay, rooming by choice with a gay male student, involuntarily assigned to room with a gay, or rooming with a male heterosexual. Among respondents who expressed strong intolerance of gays, the voluntary associate of a gay was perceived as having homosexual tendencies and as possessing the same stereotyped personality traits attributed to a gay. No such courtesy stigma was attached to the involuntary associate of a gay by these respondents. Relatively tolerant respondents engaged in no courtesy stigmatization at all. Thus, courtesy stigmatization occurred only under circumscribed conditions and appeared to depend more on the tendency of highly intolerant individuals to infer that a male student who apparently liked a gay individual was himself gay than on a motivation to maintain cognitive consistency.

Managing Courtesy Stigma: The Case of Alzheimer’s Disease

“…More research is needed to investigate factors that influence audience reaction and the conditions under which persons are more likely to stigmatise. Some family members in this study may not have experienced stigma because they were family, and observers, knowing their association with a person possessing a discrediting condition was not voluntary, believed they should not stigmatise (see Sigelman et al 1991). When the stigmatising condition is a disease, what influence do factors such as fear and ignorance, or the belief that other family members will inherit the illness, have on another's tendency to stigmatise?…”

Anti-Homosexual Prejudice… as Opposed to What?

“…Such experimental studies have varied in their realism. Some have involved the presentation of written information about individuals identified as gay, lesbian, or straight (see Laner & Laner, 1979, 1980Sigelman, Howell, Cornell, Cutright, & Dewey, 1990;Snyder & Uranowitz, 1978;Storms, Stivers, Lambers, & Hill, 1981;Weissbach & Zagon, 1975). In others, participants encountered fleshand-blood individuals who enacted particular sexual orientations (see Clark & Maass, 1988;Kite, 1992;Kite & Deaux, 1986, Study 2; Kruwelitz & Nash, 1980;San Miguel & Milham, 1976).…”

“…For example, Sigelman, Howell, Cornell, Cutright, and Dewey's (1990) participants read about a straight male target who acquired a gay male roommate either by choice or by accident, and assigned the former target more homosexual tendencies, "gay-stereotyped" traits, lower mental health, and rated him to be less likeable. Experiments have increasingly shown that gay male targets are derogated only when they enact their identities in particular ways.…”

Exploring Stigma by Association among Front-Line Care Providers Serving Sex Workers

“…Corrigan and Miller (2004) note that narratives of blame, shame and contamination give rise to stigma by association. Narratives of blame suggest that the associates of stigmatized persons are culpable or responsible for the negative social implications of the stigma, while narratives of contamination suggest that associates of stigmatized persons are likely to have similar values, attributes or behaviours -"being known by the company we keep" (Kulik et al 2008;Neuberg et al 1994;Sigelman et al 1991).…”