Citation

Angermeyer MC, Siara CS. Nervenarzt, Der 1994; 65(1): 41-48.

Vernacular Title

Auswirkungen der Attentate auf Lafontaine und Schauble auf die Einstellung der

Affiliation

Abteilung Psychiatrische Soziologie, Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, Mannheim.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8145875

Abstract

In 1990 two assassination attempts against prominent German politicians were carried out by mentally ill persons. In the same year we conducted three representative surveys of the adult population of the FRG (old Länder and West Berlin) which allowed us to investigate the impact of both events on the attitude of the public towards the mentally ill. Already shortly after the first violent attack there was a marked increase of social distance, i.e. those questioned were less willing to have contact with a schizophrenic man. After the second assassination attempt the tendency to reject such a person increased again significantly. This applied to all forms of relationships studied. The increase of social distance is explained by the re-activation of the stereotype of the dangerous and unpredictable "insane" person.

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