WHEN ILLNESS IS PERCEIVED AS CONTROLLABLE - THE EFFECTS OF GENDER ANDMODE OF TRANSMISSION ON AIDS-RELATED STIGMA

A middle-class, predominantly Caucasian (72.7%) and Latino (11.0%) sam ple of 227 middle-class college undergraduate men and women enrolled i n a large Southeastern state university read descriptions of a woman o r a man who had contracted HIV through unprotected consensual sexual a ctivity between heterosexuals or IV drug use. Participants' reactions to the target stimulus (i.e., causal attributions for the illness, aff ective, and prosocial responses) were assessed. Regardless of mode of HIV transmission women were held less accountable for their illness th an were men. Regardless of gender, people who contracted HIV through I V drug use were held more accountable for their illness, and evoked mo re negative affect and less willingness to help than people who contra cted HIV through unprotected consensual sexual activity between hetero sexuals. While mode of transmission did not moderate perceiver's affec tive reactions toward female targets, male targets who contracted HIV through unprotected consensual sexual activity between heterosexuals e voked more positive affect compared to male IV drug users. These resul ts are discussed in relation to gender roles and norms for sexual beha vior.