April 3 (UPI) -- The general public tends to assume people diagnosed with mental illness are more dangerous than they actually are.
"We want to understand whether the stigma arises from noticing symptoms or from finding out that somebody has had psychiatric treatment," Christian Huber, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Basel, said in a news release.
The strong social stigmas surrounding mental illness can impede a person's recovery. Previous research has shown social discrimination can worsen the symptoms of mental illness. Isolation can reinforce feelings of anxiety, stress and low self-esteem.
Researchers in Switzerland asked 10,000 people to rate the risk of violence given a fictional person's medical history and psychological diagnosis.
Though the majority of people with mental illness aren't violent, the general public tends to perceive them as more dangerous. Participants perceived greater danger when a person's symptoms were listed. People were especially likely to rate a person as high risk if he or she had a dependence on alcohol.
However, study participants were less likely to perceive danger if they had previously had contact with psychiatry patients or the psychiatry industry.
"Our results show that campaigns to destigmatize public perception should be realistic about the low risk that people with mental illnesses pose," researchers wrote.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
