How threatening are people with mental disability? it depends on the type of threat and the disability

Abstract

There is clear evidence that people with mental disability suffer from discrimination at school, at work, and in society. Less is known about the psychological processes and perceptions that guide such behaviors and even less if these perceptions vary according to the type of disability. Our objective was to build on well-established social psychological models and investigate the perceptions (i.e., stereotypes, perceived threats, and emotions) of people towards different types of mental disability. Participants from two francophone countries completed a questionnaire measuring their perceptions towards 18 mental disabilities and their familiarity with disability (N = 560). As expected, results revealed heterogeneous perceptions across groups. Moreover, perceived threats mediated the link between the stereotype of warmth and emotions. Surprisingly, greater familiarity with mental disability went along with greater derogation. This research nuances the overly generalized perceptions often associated with mental disability. We discuss implications for the reduction of discrimination against people with mental disability.

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) for the reduction of the self-stigma of mental disorders : The COMpassion for Psychiatric disorders And Self-Stigma (COMPASS) study protocol for a randomized controlled study.

“…The Automatic avoidance tendencies towards mental disorders (VAAST) [57,58] assesses participants' automatic avoidance tendencies toward mental disorders. The VAAST simulates approach and avoidance movements of the whole self by manipulating the visual information provided to the participants.…”

Social perceptions and the stigmatization towards fifteen mental illnesses in France: a preliminary study on the role of vital force and burden

“…A score of “competence/agentic-traits” was computed by averaging the ability and assertive dimensions (global Cronbach α = 0.79; global McDonald ω = 0.79). For a similar methodology, see Aubé, Rohmer, and Yzerbyt ( 16 ).…”

Breaking the Mold: Disability Stereotyping is Shaped by Stigma Characteristics

“…For example, children with disabilities still have less access to regular schools than children with no disability or than children with typical development (e.g., Bastart et al, 2021;Scharf et al, 2017), and adults with disabilities are less employed than people without disabilities (e.g., Bjørnshagen & Ugreninov, 2021;Carr & Namkung, 2021). Disability is associated with a negative social perception, notably with negative beliefs and feelings, including a low-status stereotype (Aubé et al, 2022;Clément-Guillotin et al, 2018;Granjon et al, , 2023Rohmer & Louvet, 2018). Link and Phelan's model of stigmatisation (2001) considers that labelling a difference is the first condition for stigma to occur, enabling stereotyping mechanisms and marginalisation, which in turn predict status loss and discrimination.…”

“…Based on previous studies (e.g., Aubé et al, 2022;Dooley, 1995;Lyons et al, 2017), we assume that a high onset controllability is associated with more negative stereotypes than low onset controllability.…”

“…It is important to note that studies showing the 'warm-but-incompetent' stereotype content were conducted on prototypical disability exemplars, namely people in wheelchairs (e.g., Fritsch, 2013;. Research focusing on stereotypes associated with invisible impairments such as mental disabilities suggest some variability of the content of the stereotype (Aubé et al, 2022;Sadler et al, 2012Sadler et al, , 2015. For example, while people with psychotic disabilities (e.g., schizophrenia) are perceived as low on both warmth and competence, people with mood and anxiety disorders are perceived more positively and are rated with average levels of both warmth and competence.…”