Possibility is not a Luxury: The role of identity in representations of possibility

In what ways are our expectations of others and their behaviors limited by the ways they are identified? Broadly, this project asks how identity traits are considered across judgments about which social roles people can assume. This work is an interdisciplinary project that exists within the fields of both Cognitive Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. As such, the first chapter explores the central issues of identity conception from the perspective of feminist theory, including a discussion of category destabilization, intersectionality, and knowledge production in the context of feminist science studies. 4 empirical studies were launched with methods informed by these theory considerations. Study 1 employs a qualitative approach to ask whether there are discernible default identity heuristics being employed for certain social roles. Study 2 develops this question further but switches the focus onto what other judgments, like statistical expectations or prescriptive ideals, might actually be predictive of default identity judgements. Similarly, study 3 considers more broadly whether the associations being made could be represented as a principle, or inherent, aspect of social roles. Finally, study 4 draws upon the work of all the previous studies to investigate how our notions of default identity traits could affect our ability to perceive certain traits as more or less possible. Ultimately, this work concludes by asserting that collectively these studies offer evidence that identity traits could meaningfully limit our scope of possibilities for certain people

Effects of the Communities that Heal (CTH) intervention on perceived opioid-related community stigma in the HEALing Communities Study: results of a multi-site, community-level, cluster-randomized trialResearch in context

Summary: Background: Community stigma against people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and intervention stigma (e.g., toward naloxone) exacerbate the opioid overdose crisis. We examined the effects of the Communities that HEAL (CTH) intervention on perceived opioid-related community stigma by stakeholders in the HEALing Communities Study (HCS). Methods: We collected three surveys from community coalition members in 66 communities across four states participating in HCS. Communities were randomized into Intervention (Wave 1) or Wait-list Control (Wave 2) arms. We conducted multilevel linear mixed models to compare changes in primary outcomes of community stigma toward people treated for OUD, naloxone, and medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) by arm from time 1 (before the start of the intervention) to time 3 (end of the intervention period in the Intervention arm). Findings: Intervention stakeholders reported a larger decrease in perceived community stigma toward people treated for OUD (adjusted mean change (AMC) −3.20 [95% C.I. −4.43, −1.98]) and toward MOUD (AMC −0.33 [95% C.I. −0.56, −0.09]) than stakeholders in Wait-list Control communities (AMC −0.18 [95% C.I. −1.38, 1.02], p = 0.0007 and AMC 0.11 [95% C.I. −0.09, 0.31], p = 0.0066). The relationship between intervention status and change in stigma toward MOUD was moderated by rural-urban status (urban AMC −0.59 [95% CI, −0.87, −0.32], rural AMC not sig.) and state. The difference in stigma toward naloxone between Intervention and Wait-list Control stakeholders was not statistically significant (p = 0.18). Interpretation: The CTH intervention decreased stakeholder perceptions of community stigma toward people treated for OUD and stigma toward MOUD. Implementing the CTH intervention in other communities could decrease OUD stigma across diverse settings nationally. Funding: US National Institute on Drug Abuse