Stigmatizing and Mitigating Elements of a TV News Report on Violent Crime and Severe Mental Illness: An Experiment

Abstract

The news media is a major contributor to stigmatizing beliefs that people with mental illness are dangerous and should be avoided. To reduce stigma, it is critical to understand how to reduce the negative impact from stories about violence and mental illness. This study experimentally manipulated elements of a TV news report to explore the effect on stigma. Participants were 838 community adults, mainly from the U.K. and USA, who were randomized to one of two versions of a TV news report describing a violent crime in which the perpetrator has a severe mental illness, one containing additional stigmatizing elements and the other elements thought to mitigate against stigma. Participants comple..