Fakebook: Anonymous Perceptions of Mental Illness in the Social Media Context

Research has documented that people with mental illness continue to be stigmatized by the majority of society (Byrne, 2000,); however, it is not clear how this functions in social media, a relatively new, ubiquitous form of communication (Pew Research Center, 2014). Social media is a widely-used platform where people can be evaluated based on their profile without meeting in person. This study focuses on evaluations of social media profiles and stigmatic attitudes towards the perceived mentally ill. A group of undergraduate students were asked to analyze three fake Facebook profiles, one of which was divided into two levels: one that included mental illness symptoms attributed to the profile's owner, and the other which did not include the mental illness symptoms. Participants were then asked to assess the three profiles, as if they were selecting a job applicant, using McCain and McCroskey's Interpersonal Attraction Scale. The investigators were interested in if the participant's perceptions of the mentally ill profiles differed from the non-mentally ill profiles. Group differences will be analyzed and the findings will be discussed.