Americans Show Little Tolerance For Mental Illness Despite Growing Belief In Genetic Cause

A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago. According to Schnittker’s research, genetic arguments have, in fact, increased public support for medical treatment but at the same time aren’t clearly associated with improvements in overall tolerance levels. The study explores tolerance in terms of social distancing: unwillingness to live next door to a mentally ill person, have a group home for the mentally ill in the neighborhood, spend an evening socializing with a mentally ill person, work closely with such a person on the job, make friends with someone with a mental illness or have a mentally ill person marry into the family. Comment: I wonder how much of the problem cited above has to do with lawyers who use ‘mental ill health’ as a technique to get people out of punishment (99% of the time it fails) and the efforts of mental health activists to take over the entire budget of the US.