Towards a better understanding of the social stigma of facial difference

Overview & Synopsis

Facial Difference (FD; i.e., the perception of a one's face as visibly different) encompasses a wide range of different conditions. Despite being primarily considered to be an individual issue, early scholars stressed the social dimension in FD. They showed that FD is actually a social stigma, which was reinforced by many research conducted afterwards. The aim of the present paper was thus to provide an overview of this research in light of the social stigma framework put forth by Pryor and Reeder (2011). While demonstrating that FD is a public stigma, a self-stigma, a stigma by association, and a structural stigma, this overview stresses the need for the development of interventions, and how the social stigma literature could be helpful for that purpose.