How commercial video games portraying mental illness are connected to stigma: An exploratory study

It is well-established that negative portrayal of mental illness (MI) in TV series and fiction can shape consumers' attitudes towards MI. However, research concerning the association between playing video games portraying MI in a stigmatizing manner and players' attitudes towards mental health conditions is scarce. To address this gap, an online questionnaire was administered (N = 119), featuring items measuring participants’ stigma surrounding MI and gaming habits. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed no significant relationship between the number of negative video games played and stigma (r (117) = –.060, p = .52) nor between the number of hours played and stigma (r (117) = -.037, p = .69). Moreover, a t-test did not indicate a significant difference in stigma between gamers playing video games with negative portrayals of MI (M = 27.3, SD = 7.1) and non-gamers (M = 29.7, SD = 8.8); t (95) = -1.293, p = .199. These results indicate that consumption of video games, even those with negative depictions of MI, is not associated with holding stigmatizing beliefs of MI. Future research could employ experimental settings to investigate causal relationships between these variables.