Belief that addiction is a discrete category is a stronger correlate with stigma than the belief that addiction is biologically based

Original research
by
Siddiqui, Hasan & M.D. Rutherford

Release Date

2023

Geography

International

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

Yes

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

Yes

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

Researchers have argued that providing genetic explanations of addiction will reduce stigma, but there has been limited research testing this prediction.

Findings/Key points

There was no effect of article condition on stigma. Participants’ biological essentialism correlated with stigma in the context of both opioid and methamphetamine addiction. However, participants’ non-biological essentialism was a significantly stronger correlate with stigma. This suggests that other essentialist beliefs, like belief that categories are discrete, may be more useful than biological essentialism for understanding addiction stigma.

Design/methods

Participants (n=252) recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk read articles and filled out questionnaires

Keywords

Stigma