Navigating dual stigmas on social media: How self-disclosure strategies influence public attitudes toward sexual minorities with mental disorders

Abstract

In light of the rising trend of self-disclosing stigmatized identities on social media and the insufficient understanding of its repercussions on societal attitudes, this study employs an intersectional framework to examine the impact of revealing dual stigmas related to sexual identities and health conditions on destigmatization. Drawing upon the intergroup contact hypothesis and social penetration theory, a national sample of U.S. adults ( N = 1,596) participated in a 3 (sexual identity cue: explicit-cue vs implicit-cue vs no-cue) × 5 (coping with mental disorders: good-coping vs balanced-coping vs poor-coping vs no-coping vs control) between-subjects experiment. Results revealed that while dual stigma disclosure occasionally showed enhanced positive impacts, it never exacerbated stigmatized attitudes compared to single stigma disclosure. In addition, the two self-disclosure strategies interacted to influence destigmatization, mediated by perceived competence rather than perceived authenticity. Implications from the findings are provided.