The Power of Social Media: Stigmatizing Content Affects Perceptions of Mental Health Care

Abstract

A great discrepancy exists between the number of people who experience mental health concerns and the number of people who seek help for those problems. Negative attitudes toward mental health treatment contribute to this discrepancy. In the current study, we tested the extent to which exposure to social media posts that derogate mental health treatment increases such negative attitudes. Participants were exposed to 10 ostensibly real Twitter posts. Whereas some participants viewed 10 posts that did not relate to mental health, others viewed five such innocuous posts interspersed with five posts that derogated mental health treatment. Participants then reported their levels of mental health self-stigma and attitudes toward help-seeking. These dependent variables were combined into a single measure of stigma toward mental health treatment. Results indicated that among men and among women high in feminine gender role espousal, there was no effect of the manipulation on stigma against mental health treatment. However, women low in feminine gender role espousal were impacted by the manipulation: Among these women, the stigmatizing tweets increased the extent to which they stigmatized mental health services. Our research thus shows that even brief exposure to messages derogating mental health treatment may have a profound impact on associated attitudes but that such effects are moderated by gender identification and the extent to which people espouse traditional gender roles.