Tabula diptycha: Differential HIV knowledge, stigma and intended behavioural outcomes amongst visitors at Vietnam's Pain and Hope exhibition

Abstract

Stigma reduction efforts in Vietnam have been encumbered by contradictory and dynamic views of people living with HIV and the epidemic over the past two decades. World AIDS Day 2010 saw the launch of Pain and Hope, a museum exhibition showcasing the lives and experiences of Vietnamese people living with AIDS at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME). Between December 2010 and May 2011, a random sample of visitors completed exit surveys regarding their attitudes towards the exhibition and Vietnamese living with HIV/AIDS. The survey sought to determine what kind of visitors the museum and exhibition attracted, and the stigma-related impacts of this kind of exposure and parasocial contact. Of 2500 Vietnamese visitors randomly selected, 852 completed the computer surveys (response rate of 34.1%), 92.3% of whom had seen Pain and Hope. We found two sub-strata or types of visitors attending the exhibition, with varying demographic characteristics, HIV-related knowledge, some differences in stigma ideation, and clear differences in intended behaviours specifically attributable to the exhibition. Social desirability biases notwithstanding, there has emerged a diptych typology of visitors to the VME, for whom the experience of the exhibition is likely interacting with divergent prior knowledge, experiences, interests and motivations.