Internalized Stigma for Concealable Marginalized Identities: A Barrier to Group-Related Political Engagement?

Abstract

Many scientists have tried to address the simple question: “Why do people continue to be unjust and treat marginalized groups unfairly?” While there is a great deal of research that has explored this by examining the behavior, attitudes, and personalities of privileged/majority groups, much less research has explored what effect marginalized group members themselves might have on the societal systems that marginalize them. One potential place to look when examining societal stigma among marginalized people is their feelings of internalized stigma, or their negative feelings about their own group (the in-group) that are produced as a result of internalizing society’s stigma toward their group. In this dissertation, I present research that tests the effect of internalized stigma as a simultaneous consequence and ongoing antecedent of societal stigma toward two groups: sexual minorities and working class/poor minorities. Specifically, I propose that stigma flows in a circular pattern from society to the individual and back. Thus, I argue that stigma partially acts through marginalized people themselves, namely through internalized self-stigma, and hinders the progress of socially progressive movements by impeding marginalized people’s desire to act toward social change. I test this link between internalized stigma and hindered progress across three studies. The first examines the effect of internalized stigma on marginalized individuals’ political attitudes and activism. In this study, which used a sample of 361 individuals (62 with only concealable identities, 166 with only visible identities, and 133 with both), I found that internalized stigma mediated the relationship between perceived stigma and lower levels of group-related activism and political issue importance. When comparing these effects for those with concealable identities (sexual minorities and poor/working class people) to those with visible identities (people of color and women), I found that the effect was stronger for the former, leading to discussion of the importance of concealability. The second study examines the effect of internalized stigma on their personal educational/occupational values and life aspirations. Among sexual minorities (n = 181) and poor/working class people (n = 162) I found that internalized stigma generally predicted lower importance of these values and aspirations. Additionally, group-based deservingness was found to mediate this relationship. Finally, internalized stigma was also found to be associated with higher perceived importance of extrinsic markers of success in these groups, including wealth, status, and popularity. The third study examines the effect of statements expressing internalized stigma on potential allies’ political attitudes and future expected activism. This study used a sample of 174 participants who self-identified as straight and middle class or higher. Although the initial hypothesis that witnessing stigmatizing statements made by marginalized group members would lead to lower levels of group-related political interest and expected engagement intentions was not supported, exploratory analyses post hoc provided preliminary evidence of the potential importance of individual differences, such as system justification, and the propensity to differentiate individual group members from the rest of the group as important variables to consider in future research. In general, this dissertation highlights the importance of internalized stigma as a barrier to social change, using two specific groups, sexual minorities and poor/working class people, as test cases for this important phenomenon. In each chapter the results are discussed in depth, along with limitations and future directions.