Unmasking the Aversive Stigmatizer: Integrating Deliberate and Automatic Cognition in the Study of Mental Health Stigma and Perceived Dangerousness

Scholars posit that mental health stigma may be the product of both deliberate (i.e., intentional and conscious) and automatic (i.e., effortless and nonconscious) cognitive processes. Yet, few sociological studies have empirically tested this theoretical assumption with valid measures of automatic cognition. This study integrates explicit and implicit stigma measures to investigate the presence of a potentially unique actor in the stigma process, the aversive stigmatizer: individuals who deliberately reject negative cultural stereotypes but still hold implicit mental illness-related biases that may inadvertently influence discriminatory behaviors. Findings suggest that a substantial portion of the sample are aversive stigmatizers and that these actors are disproportionately present among certain social groups. Thus, this study sheds light on a previously hidden population that likely contributes to prejudice and discrimination, as well as advances our theoretical understanding of both public stigma and self-stigma.