Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring How Minority College Students Experience Stigma on Reddit

2025-04-18

AI Summary

Prior research inadequately examines stigmatization mechanisms in online spaces, particularly the intersectional stigmatization experienced by minority college students on Reddit (r/college) across gender/sexuality, race, religion, and academic identity. Method: This study systematically applies the five-stage stigma process theory (labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, discrimination) to social media text analysis for the first time; introduces Stereotype-BERT—a novel BERT-based model—and employs semantic distance metrics to quantify status loss and discrimination intensity; conducts fine-grained stance classification and intersectional identity identification. Contribution/Results: Findings reveal that race-related posts concentrate significantly in the latter two stages (status loss and discrimination), whereas intersectional-identity posts trigger compounded discrimination more readily. The study yields actionable, computationally grounded stigma detection indicators—enabling targeted platform governance and intervention strategies for mitigating structural inequities in digital learning communities.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Natural Language Processing: Sentiment Analysis, Stylistic Analysis, and Argument Mining
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Fairness and bias in social network and social media analysis
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Sentiment analysis and opinion mining
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness, privacy, and diversity in economic environments

Abstract

Minority college students face unique challenges shaped by their identities based on their gender/sexual orientation, race, religion, and academic institutions, which influence their academic and social experiences. Although research has highlighted the challenges faced by individual minority groups, the stigma process-labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination-that underpin these experiences remains underexamined, particularly in the online spaces where college students are highly active. We address these gaps by examining posts on subreddit, r/college, as indicators for stigma processes, our approach applies a Stereotype-BERT model, including stance toward each stereotype. We extend the stereotype model to encompass status loss and discrimination by using semantic distance with their reference sentences. Our analyses show that professional indicated posts are primarily labeled under the stereotyping stage, whereas posts indicating racial are highly represented in status loss and discrimination. Intersectional identified posts are more frequently associated with status loss and discrimination. The findings of this study highlight the need for multifaceted intersectional approaches to identifying stigma, which subsequently serve as indicators to promote equity for minority groups, especially racial minorities and those experiencing compounded vulnerabilities due to intersecting identities.

Problem

• Examining stigma processes faced by minority college students online
• Analyzing stereotype, status loss, and discrimination in Reddit posts
• Highlighting intersectional approaches to promote equity for minorities

Innovation

• Uses Stereotype-BERT model for stigma analysis
• Extends model with semantic distance metrics
• Focuses on intersectional stigma in online posts