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Explaining prejudice toward the mentally ill: A test of sociopolitical, demographic, and socioeconomic factors
Author(s) -
Johansson Ole J.,
Kunst Jonas R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12483
Subject(s) - social dominance orientation , psychology , authoritarianism , prejudice (legal term) , mentally ill , empathy , just world hypothesis , socioeconomic status , mental illness , population , social psychology , mental health , clinical psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , test (biology) , dominance (genetics) , developmental psychology , psychiatry , demography , democracy , sociology , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , paleontology , politics , political science , law , biology
People with mental disorders often face prejudices that can further deteriorate their condition. We tested whether Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Belief in a Just World (BJW), and characteristics of the mentally ill predict such prejudices. Both in a general population sample and a sample of health professionals and trainees, SDO, but not RWA and BJW, predicted more prejudice, although this pattern was less pronounced among health professionals/trainees. BJW interacted with the targets' gender in Study 1, predicting less empathy toward a male but not toward a female mentally ill person. In Study 2, depressed individuals were blamed more for their illness than those with schizophrenia or cancer. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.