Perceptions of people who stutter: Re-assessing the negative stereotype

A common finding of past research is that prop]e mho stutter are stereotype d as being more guarded, nervous, self-conscious, tense, sensitive, hesitan t, introverted, and insecure than nonstutterers. Using an innovative sun ey method, two questions studied were (1) whether individuals who have on-goi ng contact with the same stutterer share the negative stereotype identified by past research, and (2) whether there are differences in perceptions of speech fluency between stutterers and their listeners. Responses of 114 fri ends and colleagues of stutterers found those who had on-going contact with at least one stutterer have less stereotypical attitudes than the general population, and significant differences in perceptions about normalcy of sp eech were noted for people who stutter and those with whom they interact.