Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Beware the progressive’s zeal.

The article below may contain offensive and/or incorrect content.

In this editorial, the author states that stigma work is marred by good-intentioned approaches that not only fail to benefit people but also may actually worsen the status quo. Educational approaches that focus on mental illness as a brain disorder promote only prognostic pessimism. Like everyone working in behavioral change, change agents must inform themselves of up-to-date information of what works or what does not. In some small way, this is the goal of Stigma and Health. The progressive's zeal is enhanced with knowledge about effective approaches. That said, the author by no means advocates a tyranny of the researcher, that stigma change programs should be placed in the hands of the social scientists. we should appeal to the good intentions of the progressive zeal in encouraging advocates to consider the breadth and depth of stigma change, be open to new approaches, but also be critical about what works and what does not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)