Yoo Jina H, Jang Suahn
Department of Communication, University of St, Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63121, USA.
Glob J Health Sci. 2012 May 21;4(4):15-26. doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v4n4p15.
People typically attribute more responsibility to those individuals who are infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STD) than other diseases. This study tested how different routes (i.e., sexually transmitted or foodborne) of transmission have an impact on individuals' general perception on stigma/shame and the attributions of responsibility, when controlling for symptoms/conditions of the hypothetical virus infection. Two hundreds and ninety eight college students were recruited for the study. As predicted, people who were attributed with control over contracting the virus (i.e., sexually transmitted route) were likely to be assigned a greater level of personal responsibility and were more likely to receive blame from others than people who were attributed relatively less control over contracting the virus (i.e., foodborne). The relationship between the attribution of responsibility and communication efficacy was also assessed. The results supported our prediction that there was a significant association between the attribution of responsibility and communication efficacy, in that the perceived controllability of the situation, perceived responsibility for the situation, and blame were all significantly correlated with communication efficacy in a negative direction. Practical applications by evaluating the effectiveness of the actual Merck's Gardasil advertisement were discussed that the Gardasil advertisement appears to reduce the perceived shame and stigma associated with the sexually transmitted nature of the virus by not revealing the true nature of the virus upfront.
人们通常认为感染性传播疾病（STD）的个体比感染其他疾病的个体应承担更多责任。本研究测试了不同传播途径（即性传播或食源性传播）在控制假设病毒感染的症状/状况时，如何影响个体对耻辱/羞耻的总体认知以及责任归属。该研究招募了298名大学生。正如预测的那样，与对感染病毒相对缺乏控制的人（即食源性传播）相比，被认为对感染病毒有控制权的人（即性传播途径）可能会被赋予更高程度的个人责任，并且更有可能受到他人的指责。研究还评估了责任归属与沟通效果之间的关系。结果支持了我们的预测，即责任归属与沟通效果之间存在显著关联，具体表现为对情况的感知可控性、对情况的感知责任以及指责都与沟通效果呈显著负相关。通过评估默克公司实际的加德西疫苗广告的有效性进行了实际应用讨论，该广告似乎通过不预先揭示病毒的真实性质来减少与病毒性传播性质相关的感知羞耻和耻辱。
