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The Social Stigma of Loneliness: Effect of Target Person's and Perceiver's Sex

Center for Child Development, Hong Kong Baptist College

Gerald E. Gruen

Purdue University

The assumption that lonely people are socially stigmatized was tested in an experiment using a 2 (Loneliness State) x 2 (Sex of Target Person) x 2 (Sex of Perceiver) between-subjects design. Results shored that the lonely target person was rated much more negatively than the nonlonely target person on measures of psychological attributes and interpersonal attraction and evaluation. Specifically, the lonely target person was perceived as lower in psychological adjustment, achievement/competence, and sociability/congeniali4y. The lonely person was less liked, was less preferred as a friend, and was rated as weaker more passive, less attractive, and less sincere. The negative evaluations were also found to vary according to the sex of the target person and the perceiver; the male lonely target person was more stigmatized than the female lonely target person, and female perceivers were more critical than male perceivers toward the lonely target person. The findings were replicated in a second experiment, which controlled for the confounding of gender with loneliness in the description of the target person in the first experiment. The results are discussed in relation to lonely people's difficulties in self-disclosure and in establishing social ties and support.

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