Humans have fundamental needs, and they evaluate social groups based on their stereotypical impact on goals related to those needs. According to affordance management theory, when people perceive members of social groups as a threat to fundamental goals, prejudicial emotions, and discriminatory behaviors emerge. The purpose of the current research was to investigate affordance management theory as an explanation for schizophrenia stigma. Study 1 (N = 149) examined the perceived relation of schizophrenia to fundamental needs and showed that people perceive schizophrenia as a greater threat to the goal of self-protection than goals related to other fundamental needs. Study 2 (N = 312) experimentally manipulated if a fictional target had schizophrenia or physical illnesses and showed that participants perceived the greatest threat to self-protection and child-protection goals in the schizophrenia condition. In Study 3 (N = 149), participants imagined a person with schizophrenia threatening fundamental goals. Ratings of threat, attention, and fear were higher for self-protection and child-protection goals than other fundamental goals. Study 4 (N = 413) experimentally manipulated if an attractive acquaintance had schizophrenia. Participants perceived the person with schizophrenia as an increased threat to self-protection but not affiliation or mate-seeking goals. They also reported increased fear and avoidance in the schizophrenia condition. Overall, the results of the studies supported affordance management theory’s predictions about the relation of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Affordance management theory may prove useful understanding variations in the stigmatization of mental illness.

About half of college teachers have intensely disliked a student. Teachers report that the primary causes of intense dislike are students' difficult personalities and behaviors. However, differences in teachers' perceptions of students may also be a factor. To investigate this possibility, the current research compared psychology teachers (N = 150) with and without the experience of having intensely disliked a student. Following the methods of stereotype content model research, teachers evaluated the warmth and competence of their most disliked students, best students, and typical students. In addition, they reported their emotional reactions and behavioral intentions toward the students. Although teachers with the experience of intensely disliking a student were more likely to have negative attitudes about their most disliked students, their ratings of best and typical students were similar to teachers who had never intensely disliked a student. Irrespective of the experience of having an intense level of dislike for a student, teachers' ratings of their most disliked students' warmth and competence were significantly lower than the ratings of their best students and typical students. Teachers' most disliked students elicited significantly more contempt and pity, as well as less admiration and envy. Teachers also reported being less likely to help and more likely to harm their most disliked students. Overall, the results suggest that intense dislike of students results from extreme situations rather than teachers' general attitudes about students and that disliked students elicit negative emotions and behavioral intentions.

According to evolutionary theory, the exploitation of others is an adaptive strategy for obtaining resources. Previous studies demonstrated that people perceive mental illness as a generalized cue of exploitability. The current research expanded on those studies by examining perceptions of a range of mental illness traits and by examining perceptions of both exploitability and exploiting others. Participants in Study 1 (N = 165) and Study 2 (N = 219) perceived intellectual disability and internalizing types of mental illness as associated with exploitability but externalizing types of mental illness as associated with exploiting others. In Study 3 (N = 113), participants rated their associations between specific strategies of exploitation and traits of mental illness. The internalizing trait of fear and the thought-disorder trait of psychosis were associated with perceived exploitability across strategies. Study 4 (N = 156) replicated those results with the mental disorders of phobia and schizophrenia. In Study 5 (N = 221) and Study 6 (N = 235), participants considered experimental vignettes describing men with traits of mental illness. Compared with a control group, intellectual disability and the internalizing trait of fear were more strongly associated with perceived exploitability and the externalizing traits of substance use and antisocial behavior were more strongly associated with perceived exploitation of others. Overall, these studies suggest that perceived associations between mental illness and exploitation vary between different traits of psychopathology. Public Significance StatementExploitation is a strategy for gathering the resources needed to survive and reproduce. People perceive individuals with traits of mental illness that affect their ability to think and their internal feelings as likely to be exploited, and they perceive individuals with traits of mental illness that affect external behaviors as likely to exploit others.