Social Dominance Orientation and Discrimination against People with Schizophrenia: Evidence of Medicalization and Dangerousness Beliefs as Legitimizing Myths

Explicit stigma and implicit biases toward autism in South Korea versus the United States

This cross-cultural study examined Koreans’ and Americans’ explicit stigma and implicit biases toward autism to examine potential mechanisms underlying recent evidence for heightened explicit autism stigma in South Korea relative to the United States. This evidence is somewhat at odds with other evidence that individuals living in collectivistic cultures such as South Korea may be more prone to present themselves favorably than those living in relatively individualistic cultures such as the United States. A total 224 American and 536 Korean non-autistic adult participants completed an online survey. Implicit biases were measured using the implicit association test. Koreans reported greater explicit stigma and exhibited more implicit biases toward autism than Americans. Explicit stigma was not correlated with implicit biases in either country. Less autism knowledge and pleasant contact with autistic people predicted greater explicit stigma among both Koreans and Americans. Less frequent contact and heightened assimilation ideology toward ethnic minorities predicted greater stigma only among Koreans. The variance in implicit biases explained by predictors was small, emphasizing the need for follow-up research investigating predictors of implicit biases. Informing Koreans about the shortcomings of assimilationist approaches and fostering an appreciation of the plurality of cultures may reduce stigma toward autistic individuals in South Korea.

Lay abstract

How people report their feelings about autism may be different from how they actually think about autism because some people may not want to reveal their true feelings. People who value the group’s goal tend to present themselves as more socially acceptable than people who value one person’s interests. We studied how people in South Korea and the United States report their feelings about autism and think about autism. Koreans tend to value the group’s goals. Americans tend to prefer one person’s goals. Koreans reported that they wanted more space from autistic people than Americans did. Koreans were more likely to think about autism with negative words (and think more negatively about autism). How Koreans and Americans report their feelings about autism was not related to their thoughts about autism. People who knew about autism and liked meeting with autistic people wanted to get closer to autistic people in South Korea and the US, Koreans who had met autistic people and thought that people who newly came to Korea from abroad should be more like Koreans did not want to get very close to autistic people. This could be because very few foreign people live in South Korea compared to the United States. Teaching Koreans that all cultures have values and should be appreciated will help them like autistic people more.

Blind spots in stigma research? Broadening our perspective on mental illness stigma by exploring 'what matters most' in modern Western societies

AIMS

The theory of 'what matters most' (WMM) has been developed to understand differences in mental illness stigma between cultures, postulating that stigma becomes most pervasive in situations that matter most in a specific cultural context. The rise of populism in Western societies demonstrates that also within one cultural context, different values 'matter most' to different groups. We expand the WMM framework to explore the spectrum of stigma manifestations within Western societies, relating it to both conservative/authoritarian and liberal/modern values. From our findings, we will develop hypotheses on how further research into value orientations and stigma might address potential blind spots in stigma research.

METHODS

Based on a narrative review of the literature on mental illness stigma and value orientations, we apply the WMM framework to cultural mechanisms of stigma within modern Western societies.

RESULTS

There are several studies showing an association between traditional, authoritarian, conservative values with stronger mental illness stigma, while studies examining the stigma within liberal, modern value orientations are scarce. We hypothesise on situations where encountering a person with mental illness could threaten liberal values and thus might provoke stigma among persons with such value orientations. For example, living with a person with mental illness could be seen as consuming energy and time, thereby jeopardising 'self-actualisation', the modern value of realising one's own full potential. As a result, a person highly valuing self-actualisation might try to avoid contact with persons with mental illness. Instances of potential 'liberal stigma' also include structural stigma or self-stigma, when, e.g. changing assumptions of what is considered 'normal' increase perceptions of being fundamentally different when experiencing mental illness.

CONCLUSIONS

'WMM' appears to be a useful framework to direct research to potential blind spots within the field of stigma research. Looking at instances where liberal values conflict with dealing with a person with mental illness could provide a more comprehensive understanding of stigma experiences among persons with mental illness. However, for measuring stigma, tapping into liberal variations of mental illness stigma is methodologically challenging. Qualitative work could be the first step to elicit potential stigma experiences based on conflicts with liberal values.

Exploring the link between stigma and social representations among people with and without schizophrenia in the French context

We explored the representations that individuals associate with schizophrenia in the French context, as well as the relationships between their own representations and the representations they attribute to other French people. Data were collected from individuals in the general population (N = 98) and those with schizophrenia (N = 59). Using a verbal association technique, participants produced words spontaneously based on the inductor word "schizophrenia". The instruction invited them to respond on their own behalf, but also "as the French would in general". Prototypical and similarity analyses were carried out. Results indicated that the representations of participants from the general population were associated with a vocabulary relative to schizophrenia as an illness and with stigmatizing stereotypes, such as madness, dangerousness and split personality when they expressed themselves on their own behalf, as well as psychopathy and confinement when they imagined how French people express themselves regarding schizophrenia. Participants with schizophrenia who had a clear view of the general population's stereotypes mostly referred to negative experiences and emotions such as loneliness, suffering and fear. These findings underline the value of considering the representations associated with schizophrenia in designing awareness campaigns, but also in clinical care for people with schizophrenia.

Evidence for the Influence of Social Dominance Orientation and Intergroup Relations on the Stigma of Schizophrenia

Abstract. The stigma of schizophrenia is an intergroup phenomenon associated with issues of social power. We consider that the concept of stigma power should be extended to include intergroup relations that go beyond the aspect of the relation between “schizophrenic” and “normal.” With the present study, we intend to demonstrate that perceivers hold more stigmatizing attitudes toward a person with schizophrenia belonging to the outgroup and that especially when the perceiver has a higher Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). One hundred and sixty-one participants from the general population participated in our study (50.3% male, Mage = 39.14, SD = 16.36), which was based on a 2 (Sex of Target: male vs. female) × 2 (Sex of Participant: male vs. female) × SDO between-subjects design. The participants read a standardized vignette used in previous research, depicting a person presenting the symptoms of schizophrenia, and were then asked to complete questionnaires about SDO and intention to discriminate against the depicted individual. Our analysis showed the main effect of SDO on discriminating intentions. Simple slope analysis revealed that SDO predicts male participants’ discriminating intentions when the target is a woman, while this relation is not significant when the target is a man. The exact reverse pattern was observed among female participants. Our results suggest intergroup relations and ideological motivations underpin the stigma of schizophrenia. We conclude that different group belongings of individuals with schizophrenia as well as the public’s ideological motivations should be further considered by future research and anti-stigma efforts.