How Habitual Language Mode Shapes Self-Stigma Perception Process in Deaf Individuals: Evidence from an Event-Related Potentials Study

Abstract

Deaf individuals often experience public stigma from the hearing majority due to communication barriers, which may further evolve into internalized self-stigma. However, how habitual language mode shapes self-stigma-related processing remains unclear. In the present study, 20 signing deaf and 21 oral deaf individuals completed a semantic priming task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Deaf-identity (“I am deaf”) primes were presented subliminally or supraliminally before positive and negative trait words. Among oral deaf participants, negative words elicited a larger N400 than positive words under supraliminal priming, while a negative-over-positive LPC effect emerged in the no-priming and subliminal conditions but disappeared under supraliminal priming. Signing deaf participants showed no N400 valence effect but exhibited a negative-over-positive LPC effect across all conditions. These findings provide no clear evidence of self-stigma in either group. Instead, they suggest that habitual language mode and conscious accessibility of deaf identity jointly shape the temporal dynamics of self-evaluative processing, potentially reflecting different ways of resisting the internalization of negative societal evaluations. Signing deaf individuals may derive protection from a culturally and collectively grounded Deaf identity, whereas oral deaf individuals may rely more on individualized, self-protective processing to prevent negative evaluations from being incorporated into the self.