Impact of a newspaper article on attitudes toward mental illness

Abstract

The authors investigated the effect of reading a newspaper article reporting a violent crime committed by a mental patient (target article) on attitudes toward people with mental illnesses. The authors also investigated the effect of corrective information (prophylactic articles) on the attitudes of readers of the target article. Student participants responded to questionnaires which included the Community Attitudes Toward Mental Illness (CAMI) scales to assess their views of and reactions to people with mental illness. The authors found those reading the target article without first reading a prophylactic article reported harsher attitudes toward those with mental illness than participants who either read a prophylactic article prior to reading the target article or who read articles unrelated to mental illness. These findings support the assertion that negative media reports contribute to negative attitudes toward people with mental illnesses, and that corrective information may be effective in mitigating the effect of these negative reports. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.