A unitary theory of stigmatisation: Pursuit of self-interest and routes to destigmatisation

Abstract

Based on the structure of stigmatisation one could explore six levels of intervention in anti-stigmatisation campaigns: the cognitive level - educational intervention; the affective level - psychological intervention; the discrimination level - legislative intervention; the denial level - linguistic intervention; the economic origin - political intervention; the evolutionary origin - intellectual and cultural intervention. As destigmatisation has to challenge fundamental human tendencies, anti-stigmatisation campaigns have to be continuous, non-stop, open-ended projects aiming at keeping alive thought processes that moderate and humanise the pursuit of self-interest and the urge to survive in a competitive world.

Intervention for reducing stigma: Assessing the influence of gender and knowledge

“…It is necessary to make contact and "feel" the people suffering from the stigma in question [16,27,28] . Some have stated that knowledge does not serve to change beliefs and feelings of individuals toward people with schizophrenia, and they propose, as an alternative, working with the possibility of "feeling" rather than informing [29] . On the other hand, the interventions based on videos that included the experiences of people with mental illness were also positive [30][31][32] .…”

Impact of acceptance and commitment therapy versus education on stigma toward people with psychological disorders

“…Stigmatizing thoughts can be both rigid (Kurzban & Leavy, 2001) and cognitively selfprotective (Haghighat, 2001), facilitating the stigmatizer to avoid perceived danger (Goffman, 1963). Contact-based education may be useful because it helps participants undermine beliefs that there is a real potential danger in the stigmatized, but it may leave relatively untouched other difficult thoughts and feelings (e.g., anxiety, thoughts about "us vs. them") occasioned by stigmatized groups that can themselves be perceived as experiences that need to be avoided ACT, Education, and Stigma 4 (Hayes, Bissett et al, 2004;Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006;Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996).…”

The Relation between Psychological Flexibility and Mental Health Stigma in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Preliminary Process Investigation

“…These interventions seem to assume that stigmatizing attitudes can be successfully removed from a person's repertoire. However, stigma and stereotypes have been found to be enduring (Devine, 1989;Haghighat, 2001;Hayes et al, 2001;Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994;Wilson & Hayes, 1996). Once developed, they tend to be better remembered (Bodenhausen, 1988), and ambiguous information tends to be construed as stereotype-confirming (Duncan, 1976).…”