Abstract: Humor & Hearing Loss: Using Humor to Navigate Disability Stigma

◆ Brittany N. Lash, University of Dayton

As stigma can have many negative effects on both the individual being stigmatized as well as their interactions with others (Braithwaite, 1991; Corrigan et al., 2010; Goffman, 1963; Matthews & Harrington, 2010), understanding the role that humor might play in coping with stigma is important. Humor has been associated with a decrease in stress and anxiety (Abel, 2002; Reid et al., 2006), which might allow stigmatized individuals, such as those with hearing loss, to cope more positively in stigmatizing situations. Humor can also help individuals with disabilities manage any negative emotions surrounding the disability as well as provide a means of diffusing uncomfortable situations and connecting with others (Rieger, 2004; Taub et al., 2004). Given the potential of humor, when used appropriately (see Albrecht, 1999), further investigation is warranted to understand how individuals with disability report their use of humor first-hand as a communicative strategy to navigate stigma. Using interactive interviews (see Ellis et al., 1997), individuals with a specific disability, hearing loss, discussed how they utilize humor in the navigation of their disability as well as the stigma surrounding it. The transcripts from interviews with 30 individuals with hearing loss were coded openly to identify preliminary, broad categories or patterns in participant discussion. I then used axial coding to refine and collapse these initial categories into the four final themes presented in the results, each discussing a unique way in which participants reported using humor to manage hearing loss stigma. The first theme identified was that participants use humor to “make light of the disability” as participants reported joking about challenges, misunderstandings, and even “limitations” caused by their hearing loss to cope with any negative or stigmatizing reactions others might have. Here, participants discussed the use of self-depreciating humor to poke fun at awkward situations or reactions as well as to “lighten” serious topics such as discriminating policies or the inaccurate assumptions that others might make about their disability. The second theme identified in this study explores the way in which participants use humor to ease communication interactions with others. Many participants discussed that humor can be used to help the initial disability disclosure process to ease the discomfort others may feel or by downplaying the disability in a way that prevented or lessened resulting stigma. The third theme highlights the use of humor to challenge stigmatizing assumptions others might make. Participants reported using humor to explicitly challenge, in less abrasive ways, any stigmatizing behavior or comments others made surrounding their disability. Finally, the last major theme identified in this project was the way in which participants would joke about using others’ stigmatizing assumptions or the nature of the disability to their advantage. This project resulted in a better understanding of how individuals with hearing loss, and potentially other disabilities or stigmatized attributes, use humor to manage stigma. The use of this communicative strategy to manage stigma extends current literature on stigma management communication processes (Meisenbach, 2010) as well as disability humor.