THE INFLUENCE OF METAPHORIC FRAMING AND NARRATIVE VALENCE ON ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS

Abstract The mentally ill are often depicted as violent and dangerous in the media, which leads to an increase in stigma and negative attitudes towards mental illness. We investigated the effects of different types of metaphor and narrative valence framing on people’s beliefs and attitudes towards mental illness. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four brief articles about a mentally ill person, Harry Smith, who attacks another man in his building. The article framed mental illness as either a metaphorical disease or demon, and the outcome of Harry’s violent act as positive (he prevented a burglary) or negative (he accidentally hurt his landlord). Results indicated that people had more negative attitudes towards Harry when they read the negatively valance article, but that the metaphor used had little effect. Interestingly, we found that people with a more conservative political ideology were more likely to have negative attitudes towards mental illness, and to believe that it is contagious and caused by environmental factors.