Prejudice Toward People with Mental Illness

People with mental illness face numerous negative life outcomes, many of which are directly caused by stigma. In addition to stereotypes and discrimination, prejudice toward people with mental illness is a central component of stigma. Prejudice toward people with mental illness is defined as a complex negative outgroup attitude, that is, a multidimensional unfavorable evaluation of people with mental illness. It comprises four main factors or dimensions: (a) fear/avoidance (fear of people with mental illness and the desire to avoid and exhibit social distance from them), (b) unpredictability (a negative evaluation of people with mental illness as being highly unpredictable), (c) authoritarianism (an attitude in favor of social control of people with mental illness at the expense of their freedom and independence), and (d) malevolence (rejection of sympathetic and benevolent attitudes and perceiving people with mental illness as being inferior to others). This entry reviews the conceptualization of prejudice toward people with mental illness, including its causes and consequences, by focusing on a comprehensive prejudice toward people with mental illness framework. In addition, it also discusses an often-overlooked aspect of stigma research, that is, the notion that different mental disorders may invoke different levels of prejudice. It illustrates this aspect with an application of the prejudice toward people with mental illness framework to unfavorable attitudes toward people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In conclusion, prejudice toward people with mental illness is an area of research that is of utmost importance for researchers to investigate, especially as it is a central driver of discrimination.