| dc.description.abstract | Discrimination—negative differential treatment against a group or a person based on their group membership—is not always considered unacceptable (Jetten, Iyer, Branscombe, & Zhang, 2013). Discrimination against people with disabilities is especially difficult to diagnose as illegitimate because differential ability has long been used a criterion to exclude or treat differently (e.g., Blind or visually impaired people are unable to drive automobiles; some jobs occupied by disabled people can be paid at sub-minimum wages). This ambiguity functions as a formidable obstacle for the collective health and efficacy of the disability community, both because perceiving discrimination as illegitimate has been shown to catalyze collective action (Hansen & Sassenberg, 2011; van Zomeran, Postmes, & Spears, 2008), and because it provides the foundation for positive group identification that can buffer against the psychological harms of pervasive stigma (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999). Drawing on social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) predictions, Study 1 (N = 335 people with disabilities) assesses whether socio-structural beliefs—permeability of group boundaries, cognitive alternatives to the status quo, and perceived pervasiveness of discrimination—predict perceptions of illegitimate discrimination. The central findings from Study 1 suggest that cognitive alternatives to the status quo and pervasiveness of discrimination, each independently account for variance in explaining perceptions of discrimination as illegitimate. Counter to expectations, group boundary permeability (impairment characteristics: visible, unconcealable, disruptive, and high proportion of life) did not predict participants’ perceptions of discrimination as illegitimate. Study 2 (N = 172) investigated the differential influence of disability model endorsement on perceiving discrimination as illegitimate through the socio-structural beliefs from Study 1. Specifically, I measured individual differences in participants’ endorsement of medical vs. social model, predicting that to the degree participants endorsed medical model logic, they would perceive discrimination as legitimate, whereas those who showed greater endorsement of social model logic would perceive discrimination as illegitimate. A structural equation model fit to the data with medical and social model endorsement as the predictors, perceived illegitimacy of discrimination as the outcome variable, and socio-structural beliefs as the mediators, revealed that social model endorsement, but not medical model endorsement significantly predicted illegitimacy of discrimination. Moreover, there was an indirect effect of cognitive alternatives to the status quo and group boundary permeability on the relationship between social model endorsement and illegitimacy of discrimination. There was also an indirect effect of group boundary permeability for medical model endorsement. Perceived pervasiveness of discrimination was not a mediator in the model of best fit. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 144), disability model emphasis (medical=internal limitations, personal responsibility vs. social=external limitations, social responsibility) were experimentally varied, with the expectation that those in the social model condition would perceive discrimination as more illegitimate than those in the medical model condition. This relationship was expected to be accounted for by socio-structural beliefs, as in Study 2. While the manipulation showed a null effect on outcome variables of interest, the manipulation check—participant perceptions of locus of limitations and responsibility for fixing these limitations—did significantly vary by condition; and, when used as the predictor variable, it positively predicted perceptions of discrimination as illegitimate. Consistent with expectations, this relationship was fully mediated by socio-structural beliefs. The implications of this work are especially relevant for political mobilization within the disability community via clear-cut expectations about what is and is not legitimate exclusionary treatment. To the degree that disability advocacy and rights-based organizations can leverage social model rhetoric to frame issues that affect the disability community (e.g., health care, employment, housing), the more they can reduce the ambiguity of what is acceptable treatment toward the group. As we know from an abundance of real world observations, the clearer cut the injustice, the more people are willing to act to change it. | |
