HEALTH COMMUNICATION vol. 34, no. 11, pp. 1340 - 1349
Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR &
FRANCIS LTD
Indexed
SSCI; SCOPUS
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This study examined whether and when people are more likely to conform to stigmatizing views on suicide in online social interactions. Two key factors in the study included characteristics of individuals' social capital and suicide literacy. Study 1 analyzed national survey data to explore the relationships, and Study 2 involved a vignette to gauge the extent to which people conform to stigmatizing attitudes toward suicidal people under group pressure. Results showed that those emphasizing social networks demonstrated higher levels of suicide stigma, while those with more interpersonal trust showed lower levels of stigma. However, in relation to interpersonal trust, suicide literacy played a moderating role in that those with lower levels of interpersonal trust showed significantly less conformity when they had high suicide literacy.