© Markus Richter / Faculty of Sociology
Diverse Research
The faculty is divided into eleven working areas, in which a total of 30 university lecturers and 40 academic staff members teach and conduct research.
In research, the faculty is characterised by global society studies and inequality studies. The two profile priorities span a large number of individual projects and collaborative research. In addition, a large number of individual research projects are carried out at the faculty, covering a broad spectrum of sociological, political science and social science topics and research areas. The list of current externally funded projects at the faculty can be found here.
Research Units
- Sociological Theory
- Methods of Empirical
Social Research - Organisationssoziologie
- Politik & Gesellschaft
- Social Structure and Social Inequality
- Soziologie der
- Transnationalisierung
& Sozialanthropologie - Sociology of Media
- Geschlechtersoziologie
- Didaktik der
Sozialwissenschaften - Wirtschaft & Arbeit
- Recht & Gesellschaft
News (in German & English)
20.03.2023 - New Paper on Stigmatization in the Context of COVID-19 by Sebastian Sattler Published in BMC Public Health
Sattler, S., Maskileyson, D., Racine, E., Davidov, E., Escande, A. (2023). Stigmatization in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey Experiment Using Attribution Theory and the Familiarity Hypothesis. BMC Public Health 23: 521. ►LINK
Abstract
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis, leading to stigmatization and discriminatory behaviors against people who have contracted or are suspected of having contracted the virus. Yet the causes of stigmatization in the context of COVID-19 remain only partially understood. Using attribution theory, we examine to what extent attributes of a fictitious person affect the formation of stigmatizing attitudes towards this person, and whether suspected COVID-19 infection (vs. flu) intensifies such attitudes. We also use the familiarity hypothesis to explore whether familiarity with COVID-19 reduces stigma and whether it moderates the effect of a COVID-19 infection on stigmatization.
Methods
We conducted a multifactorial vignette survey experiment (28-design, i.e., NVignettes = 256) in Germany (NRespondents = 4,059) in which we experimentally varied signals and signaling events (i.e., information that may trigger stigma) concerning a fictitious person in the context of COVID-19. We assessed respondents’ cognitive (e.g., blameworthiness) and affective (e.g., anger) responses as well as their discriminatory inclinations (e.g., avoidance) towards the character. Furthermore, we measured different indicators of respondents’ familiarity with COVID-19.
Results
Results revealed higher levels of stigma towards people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 versus a regular flu. In addition, stigma was higher towards those who were considered responsible for their infection due to irresponsible behavior. Knowing someone who died from a COVID infection increased stigma. While higher self-reported knowledge about COVID-19 was associated with more stigma, higher factual knowledge was associated with less.
Conclusion