Reactions to People with Disabilities: Personal Contact versus Viewing of Specific Media Portrayals

Abstract

The research presented in this paper explored the relationship between personal contact, viewing media portrayals of people with disabilities, and audience's reactions to them. Viewers of positive portrayals of the disabled on television programs and in the movies were more likely to perceive discrimination and less likely to say they had negative emotions when encountering people with disabilities, but more often said they were uncomfortable with them. Having a close friend or relative with a disability was generally unrelated to perceptions of discrimination, but was associated with less frequently having negative emotions and more often feeling uncomfortable with disabilities.