Stigma towards individuals with schizophrenia: Examining the effects of negative symptoms and diagnosis awareness on preference for social distance

Social exclusion towards individuals with schizophrenia can occur as a result of stigmatizing attitudes towards the diagnosis or as a response to observing atypical behaviours resulting from symptoms. The present study examined social exclusion towards schizophrenia as a function of diagnosis awareness and presence of negative symptoms. 64 healthy participants watched four different videos of confederates who were either labelled / not labelled with schizophrenia and displayed / did not display negative symptoms. Participants ranked their preference for social interaction with individuals in ten different activities and were told that they would complete the activities based on their rankings. A significant interaction between label and symptoms was found as knowledge of diagnosis increased desire for social distance if symptoms were absent and decreased desire for social distance if symptoms were present. A main effect of symptom presence was also found as participants displayed greater desire to complete activities with individuals not displaying symptoms than participants displaying symptoms but there was no effect of diagnostic label. Social exclusion appears to be dependent on both presence of negative symptoms and knowledge of diagnosis. It may be useful to focus on increasing public acceptance of specific symptom presentations in public mental health campaigns.