Abstract
A female student attempted to arrange interviews with middle-class housewives. For half the requests, she appeared physically normal; for the rest she appeared to have a deformed back. Half of the requests were for subsequent interviews with herself; for the other half, she requested subsequent interviews with a different interviewer. As expected, compliance was low when the stigmatized stimulus person attempted to arrange a future interview with herself; but contrary to expectation, compliance was not appreciably higher than in control conditions when the stigmatized person attempted to arrange the interview with a physically normal interviewer. The results were discussed in terms of the “potency ” of different types of physical stigma.
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A report of these findings was presented at the 1973 meetings of the Canadian Psychological Association in Victoria, British Columbia. This paper is sponsored by P. D. McCormack, who takes full editorial responsibility for its contents.
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Soble, S.L., Strickland, L.H. Physical stigma, interaction, and compliance. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 4, 130–132 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334219
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334219