RAPID: Cultural Patterns in Stigma in the Transmission of Disease: Ebola in Two Dallas Neighborhoods

Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project was submitted in response to NSF 15-006 Dear Colleague Letter on Ebola. Scientific researchers have established that efforts to contain disease are highly variable depending on how different groups of people perceive their vulnerability. Perceptions of risk and stigma can vary considerably between different cultural, linguistic and cultural settings. This project proposes to explore how ideas about stigma and risk evolve in the context of communities impacted by Ebola. The project has the potential to inform public health debates about how to improve human response to mobile health threats, while promoting public safety to reduce the threat of transmission. Drs. Smith-Morris, medical anthropologist, and Dr. Faith Nibbs, cultural anthropologist, both Dallas residents with ongoing research in affected Dallas neighborhoods, have a unique vantage point from which to compare neighborhood-level experience of this infectious disease, and the experiences of stigma by residents of different socioeconomic class, ethnic and linguistic mix, and culture. The project addresses two key questions. First, how is human behavior changing in response to heavy media coverage of the three Dallas Ebola cases, and the neighborhoods from which those victims emerged? And second, are there cultural patterns in the way that people change their behaviors, both individually and collectively in neighborhoods, to manage risk and stigma, or to share and respond to educational materials about Ebola? Drawing upon stigma scales that have proven effective in comparable mental and public health contexts, the researchers will adapt the prompts to include questions specific to Ebola. The researchers will then follow up with more in-depth interviews that examine the Ebola and stigma, information tracing, and the impact of the Ebola crisis on resources and actions. Quantitative and qualitative data from surveys, interviews, media analysis, and participant observation within the two communities under study will be catalogued and analyzed with concordance software widely recommended for corpus-based methods. The results are expected to create a better understanding of crisis management patterns in urban, multi-cultural neighborhoods, so that future public health and education strategies may be more efficient and more effective.