Reducing Health-Related Stigma Through Narrative Messages

Area of Science:

• Public health
• Health communication
• Social psychology

Background:

• Public stigma is a significant issue for prescription opioid addiction, obesity, and cigarette smoking.
• Attributions of individual responsibility contribute to negative public attitudes and stigma.
• Narrative messages show potential for influencing these attributions and reducing stigma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of narrative messages in reducing public stigma and shifting responsibility attributions for prescription opioid addiction, obesity, and cigarette smoking.
• To compare the impact of narrative messages against inoculation and counter messages in a competitive messaging environment.

Main Methods:

• A survey-embedded randomized experiment was conducted with a national sample of 5,007 American adults.
• Participants were assigned to read messages about one of three health issues, varying in content (magnitude of problem, inoculation, narrative, or counter messages).
• Stigma and responsibility attributions were measured to assess message effects.

Main Results:

• Narrative messages significantly reduced prescription opioid addiction stigma and increased attributions of responsibility beyond the individual.
• Narrative message effects on obesity stigma were mixed, and they had no significant effect on cigarette smoking stigma or attributions.
• The presence of a counter message did not generally alter the effectiveness of the narrative messages.

Conclusions:

• Narrative messages represent a promising strategy for reducing public stigma and shifting responsibility attributions for prescription opioid addiction.
• Narrative messaging may also be relevant for obesity stigma reduction efforts.
• Further research could explore the nuances of narrative message effectiveness across different health issues and populations.