Public disclosures of mental health problems on social media and audiences' self-reported anti-stigma effects

Public disclosures of mental health problems on social media represent a potentially powerful informal avenue for increasing mental health literacy and reducing public stigma in relation to people with mental health problems. We investigated whether the audience reported any reduction in their own stigma toward people with mental health problems after exposure to disclosures. We also examined whether self-reported stigma reduction was associated with the characteristics of audience members, the disclosers and the disclosure messages. We used Prolific to obtain a convenience sample (N = 803) of adults who had been exposed to a disclosure. We administered an online survey to participants and conducted a series of logistic regressions to identify any associations between disclosure-related characteristics and audience self-reported stigma reduction. Our findings showed that certain aspects of the messaging process appeared to be associated with stigma reduction. These included explicit diagnoses from disclosers, particular message themes such as psychosocial causes of mental ill health, and positive and echoing comments from other users. In addition, audience members who reported greater levels of empathy toward, perceived similarity to and identification with disclosers tended to report reduced stigma. These findings contribute to the evidence base underpinning how, when and which public disclosures of mental health problems on social media have the potential for stigma reduction. They can further help inform future health promotion practices on social media aiming to mitigate mental health-related stigma at the population level. Future research may focus more on the dynamics and match between disclosers and audiences and their effects on stigma.