1. Crime & Punishment!
The Stigma of Diabetes v. Breast Cancer in English Speakers!
Shefali Das, Saud Alwatban, Steven Duman
Introduction
The stigma associated with diabetes affects patients
physically, socially, and psychologically. The present
study examines this stigma, testing whether English
speakers see diabetes as the patient’s own fault, such
that they will perceive patients as deserving of
punishment in a domain unrelated to the disease.
Disease Comparison
Language Comparison
Research Questions
Do English speakers
believe that diabetes
patients have less self
control than breast
cancer patients and
will thus punish them
more severely for the
same crime?!
!
Does the language
that is used (e.g.,
literal, metaphorical,
etc.) to describe the
disease influence the
severity of the
participants’ chosen
punishment?
Hypotheses
English speakers will
more harshly punish
the character with
diabetes, and breast
cancer patients will,
overall, be punished
less severely than
diabetes patients.!
!
The language that is
used to describe the
disease will influence
the severity of the
participants’ chosen
punishment.
Diabetes patients face strong social
stigma, such that people will punish
them more severely than breast
cancer patients for an identical
crime. In order to help reduce
stigma associated with diabetes, !
English speakers can use literal
(suffered from) !
language and can avoid
metaphorical (battle with) language.
Results
As predicted, an ANOVA
demonstrates that English
speakers more severely
punish the character who
has diabetes !
(F(1, 323) = 4.101; p = .04).!
!
The severity of
punishment for the
character with diabetes is
greater when metaphorical
language is used as
opposed to literal language
(F(1, 323) = 4.805; p = .03).
Conclusions
Fig 1. English speakers show trends of diabetes stigma.
Fig 2. English speakers may show trends of diabetes !
stigma when metaphorical language is used.
Hopper, Susan. "Diabetes as a Stigmatized Condition." Soc, Sci & Med 15B (1981): 11-19. Pergamon Press Ltd. Web. 1 July 2015. Fernandes, Paula T., Priscila C.B. Salgado, Ana Lúcia A. Noronha, Fernanda D. Barbosa, Elisabete A.P. Souza, Josemir W. Sander, and Li M. Li.
"Prejudice Towards Chronic Diseases." Elsevier 16 (2007): 320-23. Seizure. Web. 2 July 2015. Roeloffd, Carol, M.D., M.S., Cathy Sherbourne, Ph.D., Jürgen Unützer, M.D., M.P.H., Arlene Fink, Ph.D., Lingqi Tang, Ph.D., and Kenneth B. Wells, Ph.D., M.P.H. "Stigma and
Depression among Primary Care Patients." General Hospital Psychiatry (2003): 311-15. Elsevier. General Hospital Psychiatry. Web. 2 July 2015. Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978. Print.
This project would not have been possible without the
patience, expertise and guidance of Dr. Bhuvana
Narasimhan, Department of Linguistics, Language,
Development and Cognition Lab at the University of
Colorado Boulder, Dr. Kathryn R. Penzkover, Summer
Discovery, Science Discovery, Mawhiba International
Summer Programs, and the participants of the survey.
managed/suffered from
battled with/attacked by
!
!
354 English Speakers were surveyed using Mechanical
Turk. The survey presented a scenario in which a
woman who had either diabetes or breast cancer
committed a crime. The survey then asked participants
to rate their deserved punishment on a scale of one
(two weeks community service) to seven (life in prison).
Procedure
shefaligdas@gmail.com steven.duman@colorado.edu