Describing persons with disability: salience of disability, gender, and ethnicity.
OBJECTIVE
Most of the literature in social psychology on social categorization reveals the primacy of gender and ethnicity in person perception. The purpose of the current research was to examine the salience of visible disability (person in a wheelchair) compared with the salience of gender and ethnicity.


METHODS
In two experiments, the authors compared descriptions of targets with or without disability (in a wheelchair or on a bike), female or male (Experiments 1 and 2), Black or White (Experiment 2).


RESULTS
Results supported the hypothesized salience of disability: Targets with disability are immediately described by disability, independent of gender and ethnicity, whereas targets without disability are primarily identified by gender and ethnicity.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that disability can be considered a superordinate social category.
Rohmer
Odile
O
Department of Psychology, University of Strasbourg, 12, rue Goethe, F-67000 Strasbourg, France. odile.rohmer@psycho-ulp.u-strasbg.fr
Louvet
Eva
E
D001288:Attention; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014910:Wheelchairs / Q000523:psychology*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult