Indigenous Naming Attribution and Social Integration of Children with Disabilities in Zambian Communities: A Vignette Experiment on Causal Labels and Household Inclusion

Drawing on attribution theory, the sociology of stigma, and African indigenous psychology, the paper develops a conceptual model in which causal labels operate as culturally saturated primes that activate normative obligations and sanctions. The design specifies a factorial vignette experiment with randomised attribution conditions, measured through a household inclusion index and a social distance scale, to be administered to caregivers in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces. It argues that interventions promoting inclusion must engage the causal architecture of local naming practices rather than treat stigma as a unitary attitude. The framework is offered as a methodological and theoretical foundation for subsequent empirical estimation, with explicit attention to the ethical governance of research on sensitive attributions.