An Investigation of the Determinants of Stigmatization and Prejudice Toward People Living With HIV/AIDS

The components and determinants of HIV/AIDS stigma and prejudice were investigated in an online‐questionnaire study. The results show that the components of the attitude toward people with HIV/AIDS consist of social distance, demands for political measures, negative stereotypes, and attribution of responsibility to people living with HIV/AIDS. Besides antigay attitudes and false beliefs about ways of infection, the HIV/AIDS attitude is connected to and depends on social dominance orientation (SDO) and right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). Structural equation modeling indicated that antigay attitudes and false beliefs function as mediator variables for SDO and RWA. Implications of the results are discussed.