Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;8(5):602-8.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nss037. Epub 2012 Mar 26.

Does context matter in evaluations of stigmatized individuals? An fMRI study

Anne C Krendl  1 , Joseph M Moran, Nalini Ambady
Affiliations

Does context matter in evaluations of stigmatized individuals? An fMRI study

Anne C Krendl et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

The manner in which disparate affective responses shape attitudes toward other individuals has received a great deal of attention in neuroscience research. However, the malleability of these affective responses remains largely unexplored. The perceived controllability of a stigma (whether or not the bearer of the stigma is perceived as being responsible for his or her condition) has been found to polarize behavioral affective responses to that stigma. The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural correlates underlying the evaluation of stigmatized individuals (people who are homeless) when perceptions of the controllability of their condition are altered. Results demonstrated that perceivers engaged neural networks implicated in inferring intentionality (e.g. the medial prefrontal cortex) when they evaluated a homeless individual who was described as being responsible for becoming homeless. Conversely, neural networks associated with resolving strong affective responses (e.g. insula) were engaged when evaluating a homeless individual who was described as not being responsible for becoming homeless.

Keywords: controllability; fMRI; insula; stigma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Neural activation when perceivers were evaluating images of homeless individuals in the controllable > uncontrollable condition showing (A) a left and right, respectively, medial view on a inflated cortical rendering of the brain, (B) the left and right, respectively, lateral view and (C) a mid-sagittal brain slice denoting activations in the mPFC and ACC. Contrasts are thresholded at P < 0.05, corrected.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Neural activation when perceivers were evaluating images of homeless individuals in the uncontrollable > controllable condition showing (A) a left and right, respectively, medial view on a inflated cortical rendering of the brain, (B) the left and right, respectively, lateral view and (C) a mid-sagittal brain slice denoting activations in the left insula. Contrasts are thresholded at P < 0.05, corrected.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Amodio DM, Harmon-Jones E, Devine PG, Curtin JJ, Sigan, Covert AE. Neural signals for the detection of unintentional race bias. Psychological Science. 2004;15(2):88–93. - PubMed
    1. Botvinick MM, Cohen JD, Carter CS. Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: an update. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2004;8(12):539–46. - PubMed
    1. Brett M, Anton JL, Valabregue R, Poline JB. Region of interest analysis using an SPM toolbox. Neuroimage. 2002;16(2):497.
    1. Bush G, Luu P, Posner MI. Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2000;4(6):215–22. - PubMed
    1. Cikara M, Farnsworth RA, Harris LT, Fiske ST. On the wrong side of the trolley track: neural correlates of relative social valuation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 2010;5:404–13. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types