Reactions to Stigmas Among Canadian Students: Testing an Attribution-Affect-Help Judgment Model

In two studies, the attribution-affect-help judgment model proposed by B. Weiner (1995) was tested in the context of stigmas. A sample of Canadian college students read brief scenarios of 9 stigmas, such as cancer, blindness, and AIDS, each ascribed to either a controllable (e.g., behavioral problem) or an uncontrollable (e.g., genetic defect) factor. The participants rated the controllability of each stigma, their anger, their pity, and their willingness to assist the affected person. Structural equation modeling generally supported Weiner's model: Higher controllability was linked to greater anger and less pity; greater pity, in turn, was predictive of greater willingness to help. Those effects were found across all 9 stigmas. In both studies, however, anger did not predict help judgments for the majority of the stigmas.