IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v103y2014icp60-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public attitudes regarding individual and structural discrimination: Two sides of the same coin?

Author

Listed:
  • Angermeyer, Matthias C.
  • Matschinger, Herbert
  • Link, Bruce G.
  • Schomerus, Georg

Abstract

Public attitudes and beliefs are relevant to both individual and structural discrimination. They are a reflection of cultural conceptions of mental illness that form a reality that people must take into account when they enact behavior and policy makers must confront when making decisions. Understanding and keeping track of these attitudes is critical to understanding individual and structural discrimination. Theories of stigma posit that both forms of discrimination are distinct phenomena. Practically nothing is known about how attitudes regarding individual and structural discrimination relate. Our study addresses this gap by examining how attitudes toward allocating financial resources to the care of people with depression (structural discrimination) have developed over the last decade in Germany, compared to the public's desire for social distance from these people (individual discrimination). Previous studies have shown the public being more ready to accept cutbacks for the care for mentally ill persons than for medically ill persons. These preferences could have changed with regard to depression, since there is a growing awareness among the German public of an “epidemic of depression”. The idea of a high prevalence of depression may have led to a heightened perception of personal susceptibility for this disorder, making the public become more reluctant to accept cutbacks for the care of people with depression. On the other hand, there is reason to assume that the growing awareness of high prevalence of depression among the general public has not affected individual discrimination of persons suffering from this disorder. The two assumptions were tested comparing data from population surveys conducted in Germany in 2001 and 2011. Within ten years, the proportion of respondents who opposed cutting money from depression treatment tripled from 6% to 21%. In contrast, the public's desire for social distance from persons with depression remained unchanged. Moreover, both trends proved to be independent from each other. Our findings suggest that attitudes relevant to structural and individual discrimination are not necessarily linked together and may lead to divergent results. This means that a comprehensive understanding of stigma must consider both forms of discriminating attitudes together. Studying both simultaneously may deepen our understanding of each and point to novel ways to produce change.

Suggested Citation

  • Angermeyer, Matthias C. & Matschinger, Herbert & Link, Bruce G. & Schomerus, Georg, 2014. "Public attitudes regarding individual and structural discrimination: Two sides of the same coin?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 60-66.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:103:y:2014:i:c:p:60-66
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.11.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613006011
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.11.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jun Xu & J. Scott Long, 2005. "Confidence intervals for predicted outcomes in regression models for categorical outcomes," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 5(4), pages 537-559, December.
    2. J. Scott Long & Jeremy Freese, 2006. "Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables using Stata, 2nd Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 2, number long2, March.
    3. McKie, John & Richardson, Jeff, 2003. "The Rule of Rescue," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 2407-2419, June.
    4. Link, B.G. & Phelan, J.C. & Bresnahan, M. & Stueve, A. & Pescosolido, B.A., 1999. "Public conceptions of mental illness: Labels, causes, dangerousness, and social distance," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(9), pages 1328-1333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wahiba Abu-Ras & Amir Birani & Zulema E. Suarez & Cynthia L. Arfken, 2022. "Palestinian Muslim College Students’ Attitudes to Mental Health Treatment: A Comparative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Simona Rodat, 2020. "Stigmata and the Process of Stigmatization: Coping Strategies and Approaches to Intervention for Destigmatization," Anuarul Universitatii „Petre Andrei” din Iasi / Year-Book „Petre Andrei” University from Iasi, Fascicula: Drept, Stiinte Economice, Stiinte Politice / Fascicle: Law, Economic Sciences, Political Scien, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 26, pages 143-163, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mauro G Carta & Matthias C Angermeyer & Herbert Matschinger & Anita Holzinger & Elisa Pintus & Mirra Pintus & Maria F Moro, 2014. "Recommendations of the Sardinian public for the treatment of depression," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(7), pages 619-626, November.
    2. Jinsuk Yang & Qing Hao & Mahmut Yaşar, 2023. "Institutional investors and cross‐border mergers and acquisitions: The 2000–2018 period," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 553-583, September.
    3. Gregory Thompson & Jeffrey Brown & Torsha Bhattacharya, 2012. "What Really Matters for Increasing Transit Ridership: Understanding the Determinants of Transit Ridership Demand in Broward County, Florida," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(15), pages 3327-3345, November.
    4. Kerri Brick & Martine Visser & Justine Burns, 2012. "Risk Aversion: Experimental Evidence from South African Fishing Communities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(1), pages 133-152.
    5. Seung-Whan Choi & James A. Piazza, 2017. "Foreign Military Interventions and Suicide Attacks," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 61(2), pages 271-297, February.
    6. Clara Berridge & Yuanjin Zhou & Julie M. Robillard & Jeffrey Kaye, 2023. "AI Companion Robot Data Sharing: Preferences of an Online Cohort and Policy Implications," Journal of Elder Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(3), pages 19-54, June.
    7. Mikael Svensson & Fredrik Nilsson & Karl Arnberg, 2015. "Reimbursement Decisions for Pharmaceuticals in Sweden: The Impact of Disease Severity and Cost Effectiveness," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 33(11), pages 1229-1236, November.
    8. Dixon, Huw D. & Grimme, Christian, 2022. "State-dependent or time-dependent pricing? New evidence from a monthly firm-level survey: 1980–2017," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. Melanie Lefevre, 2011. "Willingness-to-pay for Local Milk-based Dairy Product in Senegal," CREPP Working Papers 1108, Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège.
    10. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    11. Miriam Marcén & Marina Morales, 2019. "Live together: does culture matter?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 671-713, June.
    12. Bruno Amable, 2009. "The Differentiation of Social Demands in Europe. The Social Basis of the European Models of Capitalism," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 91(3), pages 391-426, May.
    13. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Yuanxin Li & Samuel Brazys & Alexander Dukalskis, 2019. "Building Bridges or Breaking Bonds? The Belt and Road Initiative and Foreign Aid Competition," Working Papers 201906, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    14. Altorjai, Szilvia, 2013. "Over-qualification of immigrants in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    15. An, Wookhyun & Alarcón, Silverio, 2021. "Rural tourism preferences in Spain: Best-worst choices," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Michelsen, Carl Christian & Madlener, Reinhard, 2016. "Switching from fossil fuel to renewables in residential heating systems: An empirical study of homeowners' decisions in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 95-105.
    17. Wang, Liang & Xie, Zaiyang & Abdi, Majid & Lee, June Y. & Li, Stan Xiao, 2024. "The rise of female board representation in China as a glocalization process (2010–2018)," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Rolando Rubilar-Torrealba & Karime Chahuán-Jiménez & Hanns de la Fuente-Mella & Mercedes Marzo-Navarro, 2022. "Econometric Modeling to Measure the Social and Economic Factors in the Success of Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, June.
    19. Susanne Meyer & Javier Revilla Diez, 2015. "One country, two systems: How regional institutions shape governance modes in the greater Pearl River Delta, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 891-900, November.
    20. Fabrizio Pompei & Ekaterina Selezneva, 2015. "Education Mismatch, Human Capital and Labour Status of Young People across European Union Countries," Working Papers 347, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:103:y:2014:i:c:p:60-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.