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Mental health stigma concerns devaluation and disadvantage associated with actual or attributed mental disorders. It can involve stereotypes, prejudice, avoidance and discrimination. These are related but distinguishable outcomes: knowing factual information about a condition does not necessarily determine how someone treats a person associated with it.

Sarah Clement and collaborators compared filmed social contact, live social contact and a lecture condition in a randomized controlled trial with student nurses. They measured attitudes, emotional reactions, intended proximity and knowledge immediately after the intervention and at four-month follow-up. Keeping these measures separate makes clear what a claim of reduced mental health stigma actually refers to.^[ref]

A stated willingness to interact is evidence about intended behavior, rather than a direct observation of every subsequent interaction. Interpreting an intervention therefore requires its measurement instruments, comparison condition and follow-up interval, not just a single positive summary label.

A researcher who tested interventions intended to reduce mental health stigma. A randomized trial with student nurses compared filmed social contact, live social contact and a lecture. Measuring attitudes, emotional reactions, intended behavior and knowledge separately prevents improvement on one questionnaire from being taken as proof of change in every consequential behavior.^[ref]