Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people’s behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. The main effects from a fourth study indicated self-other overlap-based enhanced brief intervention did not result in significant improvements in self-other overlap, compared to the other conditions. However, more work will be needed to verify this finding and address more conclusively whether self-other overlap is malleable to intervention in this context.
","abstract_html":"<p>Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people’s behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. The main effects from a fourth study indicated self-other overlap-based enhanced brief intervention did not result in significant improvements in self-other overlap, compared to the other conditions. However, more work will be needed to verify this finding and address more conclusively whether self-other overlap is malleable to intervention in this context.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ioerger, Michael"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Laura E. VanderDrift"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-05-13T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2018-05-13T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:55:27Z","subjects":["Attitudes","Career Decisions","Disability Training","Empathy","IOS, Prosocial","Social and Behavioral Sciences"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://surface.syr.edu/etd/853","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Laura E. VanderDrift"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ioerger, Michael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Attitudes","Career Decisions","Disability Training","Empathy","IOS, Prosocial","Social and Behavioral Sciences"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://surface.syr.edu/etd/853"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people’s behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. The main effects from a fourth study indicated self-other overlap-based enhanced brief intervention did not result in significant improvements in self-other overlap, compared to the other conditions. However, more work will be needed to verify this finding and address more conclusively whether self-other overlap is malleable to intervention in this context.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Is Self-Other Overlap a Malleable Predictor of Willingness to Work with People with Disability?"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Laura E. VanderDrift"],"dc:creator":["Ioerger, Michael"],"dc:description.abstract":["Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people’s behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. The main effects from a fourth study indicated self-other overlap-based enhanced brief intervention did not result in significant improvements in self-other overlap, compared to the other conditions. However, more work will be needed to verify this finding and address more conclusively whether self-other overlap is malleable to intervention in this context.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://surface.syr.edu/etd/853"],"dc:subject":["Attitudes","Career Decisions","Disability Training","Empathy","IOS, Prosocial","Social and Behavioral Sciences"],"dc:title":["Is Self-Other Overlap a Malleable Predictor of Willingness to Work with People with Disability?"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:55:27Z"}