Predicting Reconstructive Errors: The Role of Stigma in Women

In the face of discrimination and oppression, women have utilized self-protective strategies to maintain a positive sense of self. These strategies include attributing negative feedback, when possible, to discrimination rather than to the self. The present study expands understanding of the relationship between stigma and cognitive processes by focusing on reconstructive memory. Female undergraduate students (N=34) completed the Women and Stigma Scale. One week later, subjects read and recalled a story about a female job candidate which included some positive and negative comments about her academic credentials. Regression analyses indicated that as expected, the more stigmatized a woman is, the more negative versus positive reconstructive errors she makes when recalling a story about a job applicant. This study has serious implications for how stigmatization can negatively affect a woman's way of viewing the world. Highly stigmatized women tend to reconstruct more negative pieces of information about a female job applicant than those women who are destigmatized. Future research will explore how this phenomenon might extend to information processing about the self. (ABL)