The status of stigma

Abstract

Even before 9/11, there has been a long history of attitudes and public policies that were biased against people of Middle East descent in the United States-regardless of whether or not they are Muslim. This research uses Status Characteristics Theory (SCT) and stigma theory to examine whether there is low status or stigma associated with the Muslim religion and Middle Eastern ethnicity in the United States. By doing so, the research expands upon previous studies of stigma to explore the social psychological processes involved during interactions between the stigmatized and non-stigmatized. This study used experimental data, survey data and qualitative data collected from samples of undergraduate students using designs conceptualized specifically for this research. I conducted an experiment and a Web vignette-survey using undergraduate students from a Midwestern university. The findings of the experiment showed that that European American subjects paired with the Middle Eastern female partner not wearing a hijab and the Muslim Middle Eastern female partner wearing a hijab were influenced more and held more positive perceptions of their partners than did the subjects paired with the European American female partner. In contrast, the results of the Web vignettesurvey indicate that the European American target applicant is more likely to be selected for the leadership position than either of the Middle Eastern target applicants (with or without hijab). Furthermore, the results of the social distance measures indicate that knowing someone from the Middle East (e.g. previous contact with a Middle Easterner) decreased the likelihood of social distance from the Middle Eastern target with hijab and without hijab across the vignette conditions. This suggests that there might be less of a tendency for individuals who have had personal contact and interacted with people from In the memory of Ethel Mae Brooks and Lorraine Navarre-who always believed in me when I did not believe in myself. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are so many people that I must thank for their time, assistance, and encouragement that I scarcely know where to begin. First of all, thank you to Alison Bianchi, who gave me guidance, encouragement, constructive criticism, unending patience, and great understanding. This task was daunting enough to make me forget myself, and you truly helped me in more ways than I can count. Thank you for being my advisor, my mentor, my informal counselor, and my friend. I also have to thank Michael Lovaglia, who has provided me with guidance and encouragement, in addition to his being the Director for the Center for the Study of Group Processes, which was where I gained all of my hands-on experimental experience. Thank you to all of my other committee members, from whom I have received invaluable guidance and time. Specifically, Mary Campbell, who pointed me in the right direction with regard to race, ethnicity, and panethnicity for this project. Thanks to Michael Sauder, who guided me on the design of the qualitative semi-struct...

Sociological Social Psychology and Intersectionality: A Synergistic Relationship

“…Also, researchers of Status Characteristics Theory have done work on marginalized identities, such as sexual orientation (Webster and Hysom ), physical ability (Houser ), and citizen status (Navarre‐Jackson ) but have done little work on intersections of race, class, and gender and these marginalized standpoints. Researchers of power, exchange, and justice have done even less.…”