The stigma of perceived irrelevance: An affordance-management theory of interpersonal invisibility.

Abstract

A growing body of research shows that older adults, Black women, and other groups often encounter stigmatization that manifests not as negative prejudice, but as indifference and inattention—that is, interpersonal invisibility. We propose an affordance-management theory to explain who is interpersonally invisible, to whom, and with what consequences. A social affordance-management perspective suggests that people seek to detect and strategically engage with those who facilitate or obstruct achievement of important goals. We argue that invisibility emerges from the perception that another person neither helps nor hurts one’s ability to achieve chronically or acutely active goals. We thus distinguish among phenomena commonly subsumed under the term stigmatization: invisibility-based stigmatization of those perceived to be irrelevant, and threat-based stigmatization of those perceived to obstruct one’s goals. Invisibility and threat-based stigmatization are theorized to differ in origin, manifestation, and impact. Furthermore, rather than being a static property of particular target groups, interpersonal invisibility dynamically emerges from perceiver goals, target cues, and situational features. Nonetheless, some perceivers, targets, situations, and goals are more likely to lead to invisibility than others. This affordance-based theory of invisibility helps to organize the heterogeneous field of stigma research; unifies a diverse array of social, cognitive, motivational, and affective phenomena; and suggests numerous novel directions for future stigma research from both perceiver and target perspectives.

Being tolerated and being discriminated against: Links to psychological well‐being through threatened social identity needs

“…Although the current research is among the first empirical studies to distinguish between discrimination and toleration experiences as two types of stigmatization, other types of stigmatization could be considered in future studies to identify the unique nature and independent role of being tolerated on TSIN and psychological well-being. For example, investigating invisibility-based stigmatization experiences (Neel & Lassetter, 2019), as well as various forms…”

Leaving the Loners Alone: Dispositional Preference for Solitude Evokes Ostracism

“…Similarly, developmental theories propose that children believe solitude seeking violates social norms about peer interactions and therefore respond negatively to peers who choose to be alone (Rubin et al, 1990(Rubin et al, , 1991. In addition, because solitude seeking-an individual behaviorcan be neither threatening nor rewarding interpersonally, a recent theory of interpersonal invisibility (Neel & Lassetter, 2019) suggests that people may deem solitudeseeking others as irrelevant and passively ignore (e.g., overlook) these individuals.…”

Multifarious person perception: How social perceivers manage the complexity of intersectional targets

“…In addition, accumulating evidence suggests that patterns of intersectional invisibility may likewise be contingent on perceivers’ goals. That is, when perceivers view targets’ social groups (e.g., race) as goal‐irrelevant, they may fail to attend to and notice these group memberships—but when perceivers do regard targets’ social groups as goal‐relevant, these social groups may come sharply into focus (Neel & Lassetter, ). The upshot of this is that which categories perceivers attend to at a given moment time, and critically, which categories perceivers do not attend to, are likely to be dependent on what goals are guiding their thoughts and behaviors in the moment.…”