Exploited or Exploiter? An Exploratory Comparison of Perceived Associations Between Mental Illness and Exploitation

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.