Stigma, spread and status: The impact of physical disability on social interaction

Persons coping with physical disability face certain "social handicaps" above and beyond their physical limitation. Often persons coping with physical disability are stigmatized, in that they are perceived to be incompetent in areas unaffected by their specific physical disabilities. Two alternative hypotheses suggest competing mechanisms for the impact of a physical disability on social interaction. (1) The presence of a physical disability may overwhelm all other aspects of an individual's social identity, and in this way becomes the only cue used to characterize the individual's status in a group. Or, (2) physical disability may combine with other relevant cues to form a composite assessment of an individual's social standing.;This investigation experimentally manipulates the presence of a physical disability with other status cues to determine which interpretation best models the social effects of physical disability. Results of a first experiment, in which the presence or absence of a physical disability is the only salient status characteristic, shows that physical disability does affect social interaction in the experimental setting. Persons coping with physical disability are found to have less influence on group tasks even though they are perceived as being more competent than non-disabled others. The results of a second experiment show that in the presence of multiple status characteristics, the effect of a physical disability overwhelms other status cues. From these two studies it can be concluded that physical disability may well be a master status characteristic. This finding is the first of its kind in over thirty years of research on status characteristics theory. Never before has a single aspect of a group member's identity dominated how other group members perceive her. The results of these studies (1) enhance our understanding of the social effects of physical disability; (2) combine relevant research in group processes with work in the area of disability studies; and (3) suggest possible intervention strategies to alleviate the social handicaps encountered by persons coping with physical disability. Possible implications of these results are discussed as well as areas for further consideration.