School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
Psychiatry Res. 2022 Jan;307:114293. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114293. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Most research investigating the effect of continuum beliefs on stigma has used weak manipulations which may contribute to mixed findings within the experimental literature. There is also a lack of research into how continuum belief manipulations may impact help-seeking and help-provision. This study used an online manipulation of continuum and categorical beliefs about schizophrenia to examine the subsequent impacts on stigma, help-seeking, and help-provision. A total of 271 participants were randomised into either a continuum, categorical, or control condition. Participants received an informational video, a magazine article, and research highlights relevant to their condition. Prosocial support behaviour was assessed through a novel volunteering measure. The magnitude of change between pre-intervention and post-intervention measures of continuum and categorical beliefs was large. Continuum presentations reduced prognostic pessimism and negative stereotyping. Meanwhile, categorical presentations increased prognostic pessimism. Participants across conditions showed increased help-providing intentions after removing the highest scores to avoid ceiling effects. Fear and blame also decreased significantly across all conditions. There was no difference between conditions on our novel volunteer help-provision measure. Our findings have implications for anti-stigma programs and may help inform the design of future continuum belief manipulations.
大多数研究都调查了连续体信念对污名的影响，但都采用了弱操纵，这可能导致实验文献中的研究结果不一致。此外，关于连续体信念操纵如何影响寻求帮助和提供帮助的研究也很少。本研究采用了一种在线的连续体和分类信念的操纵方法，来检验其对污名、寻求帮助和提供帮助的后续影响。共有 271 名参与者被随机分配到连续体、分类或对照组。参与者接受了有关他们病情的信息视频、杂志文章和研究要点。通过一项新颖的志愿者服务衡量标准来评估亲社会支持行为。连续体呈现减少了预后悲观和消极刻板印象，而分类呈现则增加了预后悲观。同时，为了避免天花板效应，所有条件下的参与者在去除最高分数后，都表现出增加帮助提供意愿。在所有条件下，恐惧和责备都显著减少。在我们的新志愿者帮助提供衡量标准上，不同条件之间没有差异。我们的研究结果对反污名计划有影响，并可能有助于为未来的连续体信念操纵提供信息。
