The Role of Diagnostic Models in Prejudice Toward People with Borderline Personality Disorder: An Experimental Investigation

Summary

This experiment tested whether describing borderline personality disorder (BPD) through a dimensional framework, the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD), reduces prejudice toward people with BPD relative to a traditional categorical model. Undergraduate psychology students (n = 183) were randomly assigned to an AMPD, categorical, or control condition; all received descriptive information about BPD, and the two diagnostic conditions additionally received a presentation of their respective diagnostic criteria. There was no overall difference between conditions in prejudice toward people with BPD. However, the AMPD condition strengthened continuum beliefs and weakened categorical beliefs about the disorder, which in turn increased perceptions of people with BPD as ingroup members and indirectly lowered prejudice. The results suggest dimensional models may reduce stigma through belief change rather than by directly shifting attitudes.