Images of Illness: How Causal Claims and Racial Associations Influence Public Preferences toward Diabetes Research Spending
Open Access
- 1 December 2010
- journal article
- Published by Duke University Press in Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
- Vol. 35 (6), 921-959
- https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-2010-034
Abstract
Despite the salience of health disparities in media and policy discourse, little previous research has investigated if imagery associating an illness with a certain racial group influences public perceptions. This study evaluated the influence of the media's presentation of the causes of type 2 diabetes and its implicit racial associations on attitudes toward people with diabetes and preferences toward research spending. Survey participants who viewed an article on genetic causation or social determinants of diabetes were more likely to support increased government spending on research than those viewing an article with no causal language, while participants viewing an article on behavioral choices were more likely to attribute negative stereotypes to people with diabetes. Participants who viewed a photo of a black woman accompanying the article were less likely to endorse negative stereotypes than those viewing a photo of a white woman, but those who viewed a photo of a glucose-testing device expressed the lowest negative stereotypes. The effect of social determinants language was significantly different for blacks and whites, lowering stereotypes only among blacks. Emphasizing the behavioral causes of diabetes, as is common in media coverage, may perpetuate negative stereotypes. While drawing attention to the social determinants that shape these behaviors could mitigate stereotypes, this strategy is unlikely to influence the public uniformly.Keywords
This publication has 77 references indexed in Scilit:
- Coverage and Framing of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in US Newspapers, 1996–2005American Journal of Public Health, 2010
- The Polarizing Effect of News Media Messages About the Social Determinants of HealthAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2009
- The Stigma of Obesity: A Review and UpdateObesity, 2009
- Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public PolicyThe Milbank Quarterly, 2009
- Full Accounting of Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes in the U.S. Population in 1988–1994 and 2005–2006Diabetes Care, 2009
- Unintended Effects of Emphasizing Disparities in Cancer Communication to African-AmericansCancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 2008
- Message Design Strategies to Raise Public Awareness of Social Determinants of Health and Population Health DisparitiesThe Milbank Quarterly, 2008
- Beyond Welfare: Framing and the Racialization of White Opinion on Social SecurityAmerican Journal of Political Science, 2006
- Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victimsOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2006
- Cues that Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes During CampaignsAmerican Political Science Review, 2002