I found this article a little while ago and forgot to post it but I think it's pretty sad:
I imagine similar results would emerge from other developed countries...Aug. 29, 2008 — A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago.
I don't have access to the research article at the moment but I think it comes down to fear and relatability. Disorders that are considered relatable, ie. depression / anxiety are more likely to evoke sympathy than schizophrenia, because depression / anxiety exist on the extreme end of a normal emotional spectrum. However, psychosis and delusions are things that most normal people never or seldom experience (maybe only when under the influence of drugs or acute physical illness like when having a fever), so there's a foreign and scary aspect to that. Moreover, thanks to the distortions perpetuated by the media, schizophrenia, certain personality disorders and probably to a lesser extent bipolar is associated with violence and cruelty which evokes fear.Schnittker’s study, “An Uncertain Revolution: Why the Rise of a Genetic Model of Mental Illness Has Not Increased Tolerance,” attempts to address why tolerance of the mentally ill hasn’t increased along with the rising popularity of a biomedical view of its causes. His study finds that different genetic arguments have, in fact, become more popular but have very different associations depending on the mental illness being considered.
“In the case of schizophrenia, genetic arguments are associated with fears regarding violence,” Schnittker said. “In fact, attributing schizophrenia to genes is no different from attributing it to bad character — either way Americans see those with schizophrenia as ‘damaged’ in some essential way and, therefore, likely to be violent. However, when applied to depression, genetic arguments have very different connotations: they are associated with social acceptance. If you imagine that someone’s depression is a genetic problem, the condition seems more real and less blameworthy: it’s in their genes, they’re not weak, so I should accept them for who they are.”
Character weaknesses are still attributed to anxiety / depression though (including by people who HAVE the condition themselves). At least anxiety disorders don't tend to make the general public afraid of you, at worst they think you're cowardly, weird and pathetic.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0829135352.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18703264