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Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses
BACKGROUND: Stereotypes of dangerousness are common predictors of stigmatising attitudes towards Severe Mental Illness (SMI). However less is known about pathogen avoidance mechanisms underlying stigma towards SMI, specially in samples of non-industrialised societies of Latin America and the Caribbe...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9097401/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35549926 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03951-x |
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author | Chamorro Coneo, Ana Aristizabal Diazgranados, Edith Hoyos de los Rios, Olga Aguilar Santander, Daniela |
author_facet | Chamorro Coneo, Ana Aristizabal Diazgranados, Edith Hoyos de los Rios, Olga Aguilar Santander, Daniela |
author_sort | Chamorro Coneo, Ana |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Stereotypes of dangerousness are common predictors of stigmatising attitudes towards Severe Mental Illness (SMI). However less is known about pathogen avoidance mechanisms underlying stigma towards SMI, specially in samples of non-industrialised societies of Latin America and the Caribbean. The primary aim of this study was to examine pathogen-disgust sensitivity and danger appraisal mechanisms in responses of stigma towards SMI. METHODS: Cross-sectional design with convenience sampling. Using an online survey, volunteers at the Universidad del Norte in Colombia (N = 271) provided their sociodemographic data and completed the Three-Domain Disgust Scale (TDDS). Participants were randomised to different descriptions of someone with SMI that varied in terms of aggressiveness (with and without danger) and causes of the SMI. Then, following the attribution questionnaire (AQ-27), respondents reported affective and discriminatory responses to the person in the description. RESULTS: Increased disgust sensitivity to pathogen stimuli resulted in stronger reports of anger (β = .14; p = .03), and fear (β = 0.27; p < 0.001). The relationship between disgust sensitivity and discriminatory responses was indirectly mediated by fear towards SMI (Bootstrapped CI =—.04,—.009). Dangerousness attributions in the description of SMI predicted stronger feelings of anger (β = .23; p = 0.001) and fear (β = .40; p < .001), as well increased support for coercion-segregation of SMI (β = .34; p = 0.04), but less intentions to help (β = -.26; p = 0.003). The relationship between dangerousness and support for coercion was mediated by fear (Bootstrapped CI = .72, 1.37) and anger (Bootstrapped CI = .06, .44), whereas pity (Bootstrapped CI = .03, .38) and fear (Bootstrapped CI = -1.39, -.69) mediated responses of support for coercion-segregation of SMI. Attributions about causes and personal responsibility were not significantly linked to stigma towards SMI (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggested that pathogen avoidance and danger appraisal systems interplay in the generation of discriminatory behaviour towards SMI. Anti-stigma programs and policy makers would benefit from introducing strategies that challenge stereotypes of dangerousness and unpredictability by promoting positive contact with people with SMI. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9097401 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90974012022-05-13 Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses Chamorro Coneo, Ana Aristizabal Diazgranados, Edith Hoyos de los Rios, Olga Aguilar Santander, Daniela BMC Psychiatry Research Article BACKGROUND: Stereotypes of dangerousness are common predictors of stigmatising attitudes towards Severe Mental Illness (SMI). However less is known about pathogen avoidance mechanisms underlying stigma towards SMI, specially in samples of non-industrialised societies of Latin America and the Caribbean. The primary aim of this study was to examine pathogen-disgust sensitivity and danger appraisal mechanisms in responses of stigma towards SMI. METHODS: Cross-sectional design with convenience sampling. Using an online survey, volunteers at the Universidad del Norte in Colombia (N = 271) provided their sociodemographic data and completed the Three-Domain Disgust Scale (TDDS). Participants were randomised to different descriptions of someone with SMI that varied in terms of aggressiveness (with and without danger) and causes of the SMI. Then, following the attribution questionnaire (AQ-27), respondents reported affective and discriminatory responses to the person in the description. RESULTS: Increased disgust sensitivity to pathogen stimuli resulted in stronger reports of anger (β = .14; p = .03), and fear (β = 0.27; p < 0.001). The relationship between disgust sensitivity and discriminatory responses was indirectly mediated by fear towards SMI (Bootstrapped CI =—.04,—.009). Dangerousness attributions in the description of SMI predicted stronger feelings of anger (β = .23; p = 0.001) and fear (β = .40; p < .001), as well increased support for coercion-segregation of SMI (β = .34; p = 0.04), but less intentions to help (β = -.26; p = 0.003). The relationship between dangerousness and support for coercion was mediated by fear (Bootstrapped CI = .72, 1.37) and anger (Bootstrapped CI = .06, .44), whereas pity (Bootstrapped CI = .03, .38) and fear (Bootstrapped CI = -1.39, -.69) mediated responses of support for coercion-segregation of SMI. Attributions about causes and personal responsibility were not significantly linked to stigma towards SMI (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggested that pathogen avoidance and danger appraisal systems interplay in the generation of discriminatory behaviour towards SMI. Anti-stigma programs and policy makers would benefit from introducing strategies that challenge stereotypes of dangerousness and unpredictability by promoting positive contact with people with SMI. BioMed Central 2022-05-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9097401/ /pubmed/35549926 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03951-x Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Chamorro Coneo, Ana Aristizabal Diazgranados, Edith Hoyos de los Rios, Olga Aguilar Santander, Daniela Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title | Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title_full | Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title_fullStr | Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title_full_unstemmed | Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title_short | Danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
title_sort | danger appraisal and pathogen-avoidance mechanisms in stigma towards severe mental illness: the mediating role of affective responses |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9097401/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35549926 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03951-x |
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