The Effect of Treatability Information and Genetic Explanations on Schizophrenia Stigma

Abstract

Attributing mental illness to genetic factors has been shown to reduce blame; however, doing so may create other negative attitudes. Genetic attributions can increase the desire to remain distant from someone with a mental illness (desire for social distance), reduce one’s beliefs that an ill person can get better (prognostic pessimism), and cause people living with mental illness to be perceived as more dangerous. Presenting information about how mental illnesses can be treated alongside a genetic causal attribution may combat these negative side effects. Participants (N = 268) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to read vignettes about a man (“John”) with schizophrenia. Participants randomly received either a genetic or environmental attribution for John’s illness, and then received treatability information or no information. A genetic explanation of schizophrenia led people to believe that the symptoms of schizophrenia described in the vignette were more permanent, p < .01, ηp2 = .07; however, this finding was qualified by a significant interaction where the type of attribution had no impact on prognostic pessimism when presented with treatability information, p = .04, ηp2 = .01. The present findings suggest the potential importance of emphasizing treatability information for disorders that are perceived to be genetically influenced.