Rebecca Cipollina, Ph.D.
The Benefits of Discussing Stigma
Brief Summary: My research program studies how discussing one's stigmatized identity or experiences with others promotes beneficial mental health, relationship, and coping outcomes while considering situations in which these conversations may be most beneficial.
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My collaborations with clinical and health psychologists have documented the importance of being able to discuss stigma with others. For example, we documented that a parent’s ability to discuss their adolescent’s cancer diagnosis improved their ability to cope (Mikrut, Panjwani, Cipollina & Revenson, 2020). Across different stigma contexts, the ability to receive (health-protective) social support from others is dependent on one's ability to talk about stigma with others.
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My research is the first to explore the outcomes of how disclosers choose to share their concealable stigma (CS) with others. For example, individuals with concealable identities can disclose their identity in a direct (e.g., “I’m gay”) or indirect manner (e.g., “I went to the park with my girlfriend/wife”) which I find influences the way that disclosure recipient's respond to the disclosure (e.g., by verbally acknowledging the identity or indirectly by continuing the conversation without discussing the stigmatized identity/disclosure; (Cipollina et al., 2022; Cipollina, Sanchez, Mikrut, 2023). I document that people with varied CSs (e.g., sexual minorities, those with mental health struggles, substance use, biracial backgrounds) rated disclosure experiences as more supportive and more satisfying when responders employed more engaged responses that discussed the disclosed CS (e.g., “how long have you been struggling with anxiety?") compared to responses which brushed over the CS by not discussing the CS (e.g., Cipollina et al., 2022).
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Some individuals may benefit from explicit discussions of stigma more than others. Bisexual people experience unique identity stressors including others’ denial of the existence of bisexuality (e.g., “You’re actually just gay”), and similarly, people who are biracial or multiracial experience instances of having their racial identity denied by others which have been documented to have negative biopsychosocial effects (e.g., Albuja, Gaither, Sanchez, Straka, & Cipollina, 2019). My research suggests if individuals who feel their identity is highly contested (i.e., denied or questioned by others often) benefit from more overt discussion of their identity during their disclosure experiences (Cipollina, Eddy, & Sanchez, 2023).
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My ongoing research, funded a by Yale LGBT studies' department grant explores different mechanisms through which discussions of stigma promote sexual minority college students' mental health.
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Beliefs about Prejudice
Brief Summary: My research examines novel indicators that stigmatized group members use to gauge if encountering prejudice in a setting or interaction is likely; in other words, identifying a breadth of cues that elicit expectations of stigma. For example, I find that exposure to multiple forms of prejudice, rather than solely prejudice directed at one's own group, can negatively impact sexual minorities' feelings of belonging and likllihood of identity disclosure.
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While extant literature explains how prejudice directed at one’s group (e.g., heterosexism for sexual minorities) elicits negative biopsychosocial outcomes (e.g., poorer esteem, heightened cortisol), my research examines the breadth of prejudice cues that may provoke these negative outcomes. For example, my colleagues and I found that exposure to an outgroup-directed stigma (i.e., racism) elicits expectations of experiencing stigma for White sexual minorities (Cipollina, Pereira-Jorge & Sanchez, 2022). Such "transfer" of expectations of prejudice is grounded in reality as individuals who are prejudiced towards one marginalized group are often prejudiced towards other marginalized groups. I have also conducted research on the relative accuracy of beliefs about the overlap of prejudice, by asking participants to estimate prejudice overlap (e.g., if someone endorses a sexist statement do they also endorse a racist statement) and comparing their estimates to prejudice overlap scores computed from Americans surveyed in national datasets (Cipollina, Chaney & Sanchez, 2023). In this research, I identify some factors that may help us better estimate of the overlap of prejudice in society with implications for understanding how beliefs about prejudice can impact stigmatized groups' health and social interactions in varied settings.
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My ongoing research in this area identifies certain diversity ideologies (or beliefs about how we can combat societal prejudice) as a barrier to discussions of stigma and stigmatized group members' belonging and wellbeing in academic and organizational contexts.
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Stigma in Healthcare Settings
Brief Summary: My research identifies identity-relevant cues in healthcare settings that shape patients' expectations of provider prejudice or expectations of "safety" from prejudice. I find that a lack of cues that signal "safety" from prejudice in healthcare settings contributes to stigmatized groups' avoidance of healthcare settings with implications for their health and ability to cope with illness and stress.
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Experiences of stigma in healthcare settings (e.g., overt negative interactions with healthcare providers or smaller slights like microagressions) are pervasive and have been demonstrated to reduce healthcare utilization and, consequently, the health of individuals with varied stigmatized identities. My work explores how identity-related cues in healthcare settings (e.g., minority representation in clientele) inform would-be patients’ expectations of stigma from healthcare providers, while identifying which types of identity cues may most promote feelings of "safety" from prejudice in this setting (see review Cipollina & Sanchez, 2019; Cipollina & Sanchez, 2022; Cipollina & Sanchez, 2023).
My recent research in this area examines sexual minorities’ provider meta-stereotypes (i.e., stereotypes they believe providers endorse about sexual minorities) to determine how specific stereotype expectations may uniquely shape patient-provider interactions (Cipollina & Nicolas, under review). I suggest that these unique expectations can be targeted with identity cues to promote positive patient-provider interactions and disclosure in healthcare settings.
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