Efficacy of a Photovoice‐based video as an online mental illness anti‐stigma intervention and the role of empathy in audience response: A randomized controlled trial

This study examined the efficacy of a Photovoice-based video as a novel online anti-stigma video in reducing mental illness stigma, as well as the role of empathic concern in stigma reduction. Photovoice is a grassroots process by which members of a marginalized group, such as people with a mental illness, document and convey their experience; in this study's context, the experience of living with a mental illness and the stigma associated with this experience. Canadian undergraduate university students (n = 303; average age = 21) were randomly assigned to view either a Photovoice-based anti-stigma intervention video (n = 156) or a control video (n = 147). Compared to the control condition, the Photovoice-based video was efficacious in reducing mental illness stigma, including reduced fear and anger toward people with a mental illness, decreased perceptions of dangerousness, and decreased desired social distance. In addition, the intervention was efficacious in maintaining reduced desired social distance relative to the control at 1-month post-intervention. Finally, empathic concern was found to mediate the relationship between the Photovoice-based video and reduced mental illness stigma, suggesting that one way the intervention reduced mental illness stigma was by eliciting empathy in the viewer.