2025 Wiggins Memorial Library Academic Symposium

This op-ed tackles the issue of mental health stigma. This stigma can result in issues that range from workplace discrimination to social exclusion and not seeking needed treatment altogether. This can often lead to isolation and suicide. This phenomenon is not a product of individual attitudes, but can be attributed to social dynamics on a large scale, specifically groupthink and cognitive bias. By examining these dynamics, we can gain understanding of why mental health stigma persists despite continued reduction efforts. Confronting mental health stigma head on requires individual insight as well as systematic change. Relevant social psychological research is discussed.