Publication Date

2007

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS epidemic affects many individuals worldwide. Coupled with this epidemic is stigma levied against infected individuals. HIV stigma involves feelings of repulsion, discomfort, blaming, and sanctions. I attempted to combat HIV stigma by targeting emotional, motivational, and behavioral underpinnings in an intervention video. In this video, I manipulated: 1) whether the intervention speaker shared a group membership (IWU affiliation) with the audience and 2) the speaker's HIV status. I hypothesized that, when the speaker was affiliated with IWU and was HIV-positive, stigma would be reduced. Seventy-one lWU students watched the intervention video, and then I assessed participants' HIV-related implicit and explicit attitudes, group affiliation, and behavioral intentions. Both speaker status and group identity predicted overall explicit stigma, particularly for the sanction and comfort subscales. Students' affiliation to IWU was also modified by the intervention as hypothesized. Based upon these results, the Common Ingroup Identity Model appears to be a fruitful model for fostering HIV stigma reduction.

Disciplines

Psychology

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