Influences of Mental Illness Stigma on Perceptions of and Responses to Requests for Favors

ABSTRACT

This article examines mental illness stigma effects on a request for a favor from a mentally ill individual. Four hundred and fourteen participants interacted with a hypothetical target on Facebook who was believed to have schizophrenia, depression, or a tooth cavity (i.e., the control group). Participants were asked to rate the favor request in terms of face threat, in addition to writing a response, which was then coded using message design logics. Results indicated that a request by a schizophrenic target threatened participants’ positive face more significantly than that of a target with depression or without any mental illness. Participants’ responses to the schizophrenic target were more likely to be conventional messages, whereas responses to the depressed target were more likely to be rhetorical messages. Theoretical and practical contributions are considered.

Notes

¹ Although O’Keefe (1988) proposed message design logics as individual differences, she did not deny the possibility that people use different logics depending on situations. Because message design logics were formulated on the premise that we communicate to achieve goals, different logics can be used according to various situations where different goals are pursued.