Perceived Rights of and Social Distance to People with Alzheimer’s Disease
Abstract
The present study investigated how laypeople and professionals (N = 185) judge the rights of someone affected with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and whether social distance exists toward this person. Participants completed a questionnaire after reading a vignette describing a target person with an early stage of AD. Half of the participants responded to a female target, the other half to a male target. Results showed that the rights and competencies of the persons are rated high and social distance is exhibited only to a minor degree, although there was a significant difference between the male and female targets. Furthermore, health professionals approved more rights than laypeople, which suggests that there is a need for more detailed information about this disease in the general population.
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