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

Abstract

Background Drug addiction is stigmatized, and this stigma contributes to poor outcomes for individuals with addiction. Researchers have argued that providing genetic explanations of addiction will reduce stigma (Richter et al., 2019), but there has been limited research testing this prediction. Methods We presented participants with news articles that either provided genetic or anti-genetic explanations of addiction. Results 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. Conclusions This suggests that other essentialist beliefs, like belief that categories are discrete, may be more useful than biological essentialism for understanding addiction stigma.