Determination of stigma among individuals who deviate from the norms and among community members: The price paid by all

Abstract

The Jewish Ultraorthodox community in Israel strongly opposes enlisting in the Israeli military. Young men who violate this norm must cope with negative social consequences such as stigma. In the current study we investigated risk and protective factors (self‐esteem, sense of community, positive and negative societal conditional regard, and “tightness of the community”) for public stigma against Ultraorthodox former soldiers, both among these young men and among community members. Among soldiers we also examined the determination of self‐stigma. The first study comprised 153 participants between the ages of 20 and 55 (M = 29.64, SD = 6.89); the second study comprised 433 participants between the ages of 21 and 75 (M = 36, SD = 10.82). Path analysis models indicated the protective role played by self‐esteem and societal conditional positive regard in participants' perception of public and self‐stigma, and the risk factor posed by societal conditional negative regard and “tightness of the community.” Sense of community was found to be a protective factor only for soldiers; for community members it was found to be a risk factor that increased public stigma. The findings reveal that stigma exacts a price not only from soldiers but also from the community, leading to losses for all involved.