Witnessing Disclosure of Depression: Gender and Attachment Avoidance Moderate Interpersonal Evaluations

Abstract

People with depression often face the decision of whether or not to disclose their condition to others. Although much is known about how people tend to respond as recipients of emotional disclosure, third-party perceptions of disclosers have remained largely unexamined despite the fact that everyday disclosure conversations typically happen in the context of larger social networks in which some people already know about the stigmatized condition. The present work investigated how gender and attachment avoidance, two individual difference variables commonly implicated in interpersonal evaluations, moderate the responses of third-party observers to information concerning depression disclosure decisions. Across two studies, U.S. adults evaluated a target who chose to disclose or conceal some stigmatizing information. In Study 1, the type of stigma was manipulated (depression versus chronic physical pain), and the target ratings were compared across participant gender. In Study 2, all participants read scenarios featuring a target with depression and completed a measure of attachment styles. We found that, while women in general and men low in attachment avoidance evaluated depression disclosers more positively than concealers, men high in attachment avoidance preferred concealment over disclosure. These results illustrate the complexity surrounding the decision of disclosing depression and other emotion-laden stigmatizing information.