Attitudes towards behavioural versus organic acquisition of brain injury

To investigate the public's attitudes towards survivors of brain injury in Northern Ireland.

Four hypothetical vignettes were constructed to test how the acquisition of a brain injury impacted on people's attitudes. The stories of protagonists that they either acquired their injury through organic (e.g. haemorrhage) means or in some self-initiated (e.g. brawl) behaviour. The gender of the protagonists was varied to examine differences in attitudes to males and females.

Adapted versions of the Prejudicial Evaluation Scale (PES) and Social Interaction Scale (SIS) were administered to 96 university students.

The data was analysed using three 2 x 2 between subjects ANOVAs and showed that there was no significant main effect of gender, a highly significant effect of injury on negative attitudes (F(1, 92) = 68.30, p < 0.001], amount of desired social interaction [F(1, 92) = 46.27, p < 0.001] and willingness to help [F(1, 92) = 44.66, p < 0.001].

The perception that an individual's behaviour contributed to their injury may lead to stigmatization and its negative consequences.