Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
In this talk, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton offers a perspective in which within-group variability—namely, the individual differences that differentiate group members from one another— is as important a component to understanding the relationship between stigma and health outcomes as is between-group variability, or comparisons of relevant health outcomes among population groups. Drawing from his lab’s work on status-based rejection sensitivity, he offers a framework through which to understand such individual differences in relation to culture and cultural experience. The broad goal is to reconcile individual variability with the fact that group level differences exist in the frequency, type, and severity of discrimination that groups are exposed to, and the cultural environments they navigate.