Stigmatizing Communication About People with Mental Disorders

Individuals with mental disorders face not only the challenges of their conditions but also intergroup communication processes that can exacerbate stigma. While explicit discrimina-tion measures are common, this study examines stigmatizing intergroup communication through linguistic abstraction as an implicit indicator, based on the Linguistic Intergroup Bias Theory and the Linguistic Category Model. We assessed linguistic abstraction in inter-group communication using four levels of abstraction—descriptive action verbs, state verbs, adjectives, and nouns—through an online questionnaire targeting mental health profession-als and the general population. Results reveal that schizophrenia is communicated most ab-stractly, regardless of participant group, highlighting systematic patterns in intergroup communication about mental disorders. The general population engaged in more stigmatiz-ing intergroup communication than mental health professionals, particularly for bipolar dis-order and autism. Higher abstraction levels were associated with greater social dominance orientation (SDO) across all conditions except depression. These findings underscore lin-guistic abstraction as a subtle yet potent marker of stigmatizing intergroup communication, highlighting the role of language in shaping intergroup perceptions of mental disorders and in constructing and reinforcing social categories.