(Un)veiling distinct feelings: A typology of affective reactions while meeting people with facial disfigurement for the first time.

Abstract

This research aims to better understand the affective dimension in the public stigma of people with facial difference (FD) by identifying the perceivers’ various affective reactions to FD and by grouping them in a relevant typology. In a first qualitative step (N = 47), a vignette study based on a self-presentation paradigm was used to get participants to generate a comprehensive list of the affective states they may feel when they first meet people with FD. In a second quantitative step (N = 385), a questionnaire composed of the formerly generated affective states was proposed to other participants so as to statistically select the most relevant dimensions. A comprehensive list of 65 partially overlapping affective states—including 72 that have emerged in the first study and two others coming from previous research—were clustered in six factors via an exploratory factor analysis in the second study. The factors were named as follows: “sympathy-related,” “anxiety- and embarrassment-related,” “surprise-related,” “hostility-related,” “neutrality-related,” and “disgust-related.” This 6-factor structure was confirmed in a typology reduced to 18 affective states via a confirmatory factor analysis. This research offers a concise and complete panel of the ambivalent affective reactions to FD.

The psychosocial burden of visible disfigurement following traumatic injury

“…This is in contrast to the long standing “What is Beautiful is Good” bias ( Dion et al, 1972 ). From a recent study using fMRI, it appears that these negative responses are “hardwired” into the occipito-temporal cortex as well as anterior cingulate cortex of the brain ( Hartung et al, 2019 ), which may explain the particularly negative reactions that facial disfigurement illicits ( Stone and Potton, 2019 ; Rasset et al, 2022 ). Encouragingly, plastic surgical procedures that minimize disfigurement result in more positive perceptions of individuals with disfigurement ( Mazzaferro et al, 2017 ; Jamrozik et al, 2019 ).…”

Towards a better understanding of the social stigma of facial difference

“…The results showed that, when high anonymity was guaranteed, participants reported more sorrow and curiosity, less positive and more negative emotions. Based on this, a six-dimension typology describing a wide array of possible affective states experienced by perceivers of people with FD emerged (Rasset et al, 2022b). The dimensions are surprise, anxiety and embarrassment, disgust, hostility, sympathy, and neutral affective states.…”

“…The former engenders automatic and immediate responses which can then be counterbalanced by a more controlled and thoughtful reaction, which occurs slightly later. For this reason, reactions to people with FD often comprise a mixture of negative and positive feelings (Dovidio et al, 2000;Rasset et al, 2022aRasset et al, , 2022b.…”

“…Also, physiological measures have been helpful in establishing affective reactions (Blascovich et al, 2001) and circumventing social desirability bias. These include eye-tracking measures for gaze behavior (see Asaad et al, 2020;Rasset et al, 2022aRasset et al, , 2022b, and fMRI for cognitive processes and their neural correlates (e.g., Hartung et al, 2019;Krendl et al, 2013).…”