The "Own" and the "Wise": Does Stigma Status Buffer or Exacerbate Social Rejection of College Students with a Mental Illness?

Drawing on Goffman's stigma status framework, this study examines how being diagnosed with a mental illness or knowing someone close diagnosed with a mental illness affects responses towards persons exhibiting symptoms of various mental illnesses. Using data from a survey administered to a sample of college students (n = 556), we find that respondents who have been diagnosed with a mental illness (the "own") or who know a family member or friend with a mental illness diagnosis (the "wise") express lower desired social distance from persons with symptoms of a mental illness than other respondents ("normals"). Also, informally labeling symptoms as 'mental illness' reduced social distance among those similarly diagnosed. However, perceived dangerousness did not vary across stigma status, and the socially-distancing effects of perceived dangerousness were more pronounced among the "own," indicating that labels and stereotypes operate in countervailing ways.