Normalizing Anxiety on Social Media Increases Self-Diagnosis of Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Identification (But Not Stigma)

Abstract

Normalizing mental health disorders in media communication can have a positive impact on the public by improving awareness. However, normalizing issues like anxiety could lead people to categorize normal anxiety as a disorder. In Study One, viewing social media posts that normalized anxiety resulted in a greater likelihood of self-diagnosis of anxiety disorder compared to social media posts that did not normalize it. This effect was through identification with and liking of the person featured in the social media post. In Study Two, those results were replicated. Additionally, we expected, but did not find, that normalizing anxiety had an impact on perceived stigma of anxiety disorders. Thus, at least in this case, normalization influenced self-diagnosis primarily through increasing identification with another person with anxiety, rather than decreasing stigma. Efforts to maximize positive impacts of normalizing disorders should examine unintended, potentially negative, consequences.