Belief that addiction is a discrete category is a stronger correlate with stigma than the belief that addiction is biologically based

Abstract

BackgroundDrug addiction is stigmatized, and this stigma contributes to poor outcomes for individuals with addiction. Researchers have argued that providing genetic explanations of addiction will reduce stigma, but there has been limited research testing this prediction.MethodsWe presented participants (N = 252) with news articles that either provided genetic or anti-genetic explanations of addiction.ResultsThere was no effect of article condition on stigma. Participants’ biological essentialism correlated with stigma in the context of both opioid and methamphetamine addiction. However, participants’ non-biological essentialism was a significantly stronger correlate with stigma.ConclusionsThis suggests that other essentialist beliefs, like belief that categories are discrete, may be more useful than biological essentialism for understanding addiction stigma.