Mental health & gender stereotypes: Experimental evidence

International statistics reveal a persistent paradox: women receive depression diagnoses at rates two to three times higher than men, yet male suicide rates are two to three times higher than female rates. We investigate whether gender stereotype priming affects self-reported mental health using an experimental design embedded in a representative survey of the Italian population. We show that exposure to the treatment is associated to worse self-reported mental distress, with statistically comparable effects across genders. K-means clustering analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity: treatment effects are strongest among individuals who fail to conform to traditional gender expectations. These findings suggests that gender stereotype salience imposes psychological costs, particularly for those who fall short of traditional role expectations, offering insights into persistent gender disparities in mental health reporting and outcomes.