Coping with stigma: Challenges & Opportunities

Abstract

This final section considers what can be done to cope with stigma. Kunreuther and Slovic identify four strategies for coping with stigma. Walker, in a response to Kunreuther and Slovic, questions the assumption that society ought to adopt the normative values of reducing stigma through a variety of strategies or techniques. Fischhoff proposes a definition of stigma and draws a number of inferences including that “stigma reflects a moral statement of what constitutes unacceptable behavior.” When this is the case, Fischhoff says that attempts to change or adjust perceptions, evaluations, or behaviors that stigma produces, presume a moral superiority on the part of those applying strategies to cope with stigma. In a final comment, he notes that this “may not be a comfortable, or appropriate, role for social scientists.”