Persons with AIDS (PWAs) are faced with the social isolation and discr
imination that accompanies a deviant and stigmatized status. In this r
easearch, we used the labeling or societal reaction theory in the soci
ology of deviance to investigate factors related to the stigmatization
of a PWA who developed AIDS as the result of one of four behaviors: h
omosexual sex, IV drug use, heterosexual sex, or a blood transfusion.
A questionnaire was used to gather data from a sample of college stude
nts. Results from a one-way analysis of variance indicated that of the
four PWA conditions respondents attached the least stigma to the PWA
in the blood transfusion condition and the greater stigma to the PWA i
n the heterosexual condition. The greatest, but similar, amount of sti
gma was attached to both the homosexual and the IV drug use conditions
. Multiple regression analysis also revealed several significant findi
ngs. first, we found that stigma increased as homophobia increased in
all four PWA conditions. Second, stigma increased as AIDS knowledge de
creased in the IV drug use and blood transfusion conditions. Third, wo
men attached less stigma than men in all but the heterosexual conditio
n. Fourth, in the blood transfusion condition, stigma decreased as rel
igiosity increased.