Public Stigmatization of People With Intellectual Disability During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Public stereotypes about people with ID did not worsen during COVID—lack of personal contact fuels bias, so build friendly encounters.
01Research in Context
What this study did
R et al. asked 1,797 Dutch adults how they view people with intellectual disability.
The team ran an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They wanted to know if the health crisis changed public stereotypes.
What they found
Stereotypes stayed the same; they did not get worse.
People who said they did not know anyone with ID showed more discrimination.
The study found ambivalent but stable views.
How this fits with other research
Scior et al. (2010) saw less friendly views in Hong Kong than in the UK before COVID.
R et al. now show Dutch views held steady during the crisis, so culture and time matter.
Pellicano et al. (2022) let autistic adults speak: many felt more isolated and sad when services went online.
R et al. looked at the public side; Elizabeth et al. looked at the personal side—together they map the full stigma picture.
Dimitrova et al. (2025) found that strong family resilience cut child behavior problems in UK families with ID during the pandemic.
Their work extends R et al. by showing that good family support can buffer the same public attitudes that R et al. measured.
Why it matters
You cannot erase public stereotypes overnight, but you can shrink their impact.
Pair classmates, coworkers, or neighbors for short, positive activities with your clients.
Hand a brief disclosure card or share a fun fact—Stewart et al. (2018) proved tiny moves lower stigma.
Track who in the circle still seems uneasy and plan more contact, not more pamphlets.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study aimed to examine the level of discrimination against people with intellectual disability during COVID-19, and assessed stereotypes, levels of familiarity with people with intellectual disability, and personal experiences with COVID-19 as potential correlates. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a large sample from the Dutch population (n = 1,797). Salient stereotype factors of people with intellectual disability were "friendly" and "in need of help," but not "give nuisance." Those respondents who were unfamiliar with people with intellectual disability in real life demonstrated higher levels of discrimination, perceiving them as more of a nuisance and as being less in need of help, in comparison to those who were more familiar. People with intellectual disability were judged by an ambivalent set of stereotypes during the COVID-19 pandemic that were in line with pre-COVID-19 findings and as such seemed to be fairly persistent and robust. There is a pressing need to both raise awareness of stereotypes towards and discrimination against people with intellectual disability via advocacy and education, and to facilitate positive encounters.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-127.6.485