(Mar. 22, 2013) A new study from Johns Hopkins University confirms that media coverage of mass shootings increases negative attitudes toward individuals with severe mental illness.
Slightly more than half the 1,797 study participants who read a news story about a mass shooting thought people with serious mental illness are more likely to be dangerous than others, compared to 40% of the participants who didn’t read such stories, according to “Effects of News Media Messages About Mass Shootings on Attitudes Towards Persons with Serious Mental Illness and Public Support for Gun Control Policies” (American Journal of Psychiatry, April 2013).
It would have been more newsworthy if the report had found no connection between the coverage and negative attitudes. Our 2011 backgrounder, “Stigma: Violence by seriously mentally ill persons is its main cause,” cited six studies or polls linking the mental illness-related violence and stigma. Since most people learn about such violence from the media, the Hopkins findings are no surprise.
The Hopkins study, like others before it, is likely to provoke cries for the media (or us) to stop reporting a link between violence and severe mental illness instead of where the focus rightfully belongs: on getting treatment for the very small subset of individuals, typically untreated, with who are at risk to commit the acts that lead to this stereotyping.
As our backgrounder says, “Recent studies have demonstrated that stigma against people with mental illnesses has increased over the past half century and is still increasing. Multiple studies have also shown that the major cause of this stigma is the perception that some individuals with mental illnesses are dangerous. Given this fact, it seems self-evident that stigma will not be decreased until we decrease violent behavior committed by mentally ill persons, and this can only be done by ensuring that they receive treatment.”
The Hopkins study also found that news about mass killings also increase support for gun restrictions for individuals with severe mental illness and for a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Read the Johns Hopkins announcement about the study here.
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