Evaluating Entertainment-Education Narratives to Reduce LGBTQ +—and Mental Illness–Related Stigma

LGBTQ + individuals living with mental illness (MI) encompass multiple marginalized, identities and consequently face unique experiences of the stigma leading to suboptimal quality of life. Entertainment-education (EE) strategies, which utilize stories to engage viewers with a purposive message, hold the potential to increase health knowledge, change attitudes and intentions, and influence health behaviors. Prior research has found that intersectional stories of LGBTQ + individuals living with a MI were effective at reducing MI-related stigma, but ineffective at reducing LGBTQ + -related stigma. Therefore, there is a need to explore what EE factors identification with, empathy for, and perceived similarity to the storyteller may moderate the effect of intersectional stories on reducing LGBTQ + and MI stigma. Identification with and perceived similarity to the storyteller did moderate the relationship of LGBTQ + MI stories in reducing genderism and transphobia; however, EE factors did not moderate the relationship of LGBTQ + MI stories in reducing mental illness–related stigma. There are significant implications for using EE intersectional stories as prevention and intervention strategies to minimize MI and LGBTQ + -related stigma.