Would you call an individual with depression “mentally ill” or a “person with a mental illness”? According to a new study, the label one gives a person with such an illness can influence how they are tolerated by society. Share on Pinterest Using “mentally ill” to describe a person with mental illness reduces tolerance toward them, a new study found. Published in The Journal of Counseling & Development, the study found that people were less tolerant toward individuals who were described as being “mentally ill” as opposed to “people with mental illness.” According to study coauthor Darcy Haag Granello, professor of educational studies at the Ohio State University, the findings suggest that language choice when referring to a person with a mental illness is not simply a matter of “political correctness.” “This isn’t just about saying the right thing for appearances,” she says. “The language we use has real effects on our levels of tolerance for people with mental illness.” To reach their findings, Granello and her colleague Todd Gibbs, a graduate student in educational studies at Ohio State, enrolled three groups of participants: 221 undergraduate students, 211 non-student adults from a community sample and 269 professional counselors and counselors-in-training.

‘Mentally ill’ vs. ‘people with a mental illness’ All participants completed a questionnaire called Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI). Participants were presented with a set of statements that measured their attitudes toward people with a mental illness in four areas: authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness and community mental health ideology. While the subject of each statement was the same for each participant, half of the participants in each group were presented with statements that referred to “the mentally ill,” while the remaining half were presented with statements that referred to “people with mental illness.” For example, one statement assessing participants’ attitudes toward social restrictiveness among people with a mental illness said: “The mentally ill (or ‘people with mental illness’) should be isolated from the rest of the community.” Participants were asked to rate each statement on a five-point scale, with one representing “strongly agree” and five representing “strongly disagree.”