Experience matters: A freelist study of college students' associations with mental illness

Objectives: The goal of this study was to assess the associations with mental illness that underlie stereotypes and stigma. Methods: We recruited 117 college students to complete the anthropological freelisting technique describing their associations with mental illness and measures of familiarity, mental illness stigma, and empathy. Results: Participants mostly associated specific diagnoses with mental illness. We split participants into those who scored above the median on stigma and those who scored below the median on stigma. Those with below-the-median stigma expressed empathy and those with above-the-median stigma described danger stereotypes. Additionally, we found that the below-the-median stigma group had significantly higher empathy scores. Conclusions: Overall, college students demonstrated an accurate understanding of the most common mental illness diagnoses and treatments. Associations differed based on stigma, perhaps due to higher empathy.