ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2025
"Putting yourself in the shoes of others" - Relatability as a novel measure to explain the difference in stigma toward depression and schizophrenia.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Next of kin involvement in mental health care services - a systematic participatory overview of evidence syntheses.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Public stigma of mental illness in Australia: shifts in attitudes across nationally representative surveys in 2011 and 2024.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2026Article
- Reducing mental health stigma in the workplace: a mixed-method analysis of a quasi-experimental trial and the contextual role of personal values.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAttitudes toward schizophrenia and depression have evolved differently over the last decades, exposing people with schizophrenia to growing stigma. Classic descriptions of schizophrenia symptoms as being particularly unrelatable might offer an explanation for this gap in attitudes that has not yet been tested. We examine to what extent relatability explains the difference in social distance toward people with depression or schizophrenia.
methodsWe developed the 8-item "Relatability Scale", measuring to what extent people can relate to someone described as having either depression or schizophrenia, and used it in an online quota sample of 550 respondents in Germany. Beyond, we elicited the desire for social distance, continuum beliefs, emotional reactions, perceived dangerousness, general empathy, and previous contact.
resultsThe Relatability Scale showed good psychometric properties and construct validity. Differences in relatability alone explained 63.6% of this difference in social distance between depression and schizophrenia. Adding continuum beliefs increased this amount to 83.0%. All other variables combined explained 53.2% of the difference in social distance between disorders.
conclusionDifferences in both relatability and continuum beliefs seem key to understanding different reactions to someone with depression or schizophrenia. Anti-stigma interventions could be optimized in order to increase relatability and continuum beliefs particularly regarding people with severe, psychotic mental disorders.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.