title: Understanding Lay Assessments of Alcohol Use Disorder: Need for Treatment and Associated Stigma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Three-quarters of people with an alcohol use disorder in the USA never receive treatment. Our understandings of who receives care are informed by sociological perspectives, theories and models, each of which discuss the role of lay people's understanding of illness. However, comparatively little work has been done to unpack the cognitive processes underlying lay assessment. In the context of the Framework Integrating Normative Influences on Stigma (FINIS), we aim to understand key factors guiding lay people's stigmatizing attitudes, perceptions and assessments of alcohol use disorder behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Lay people read a vignette depicting a male or female adult with a diagnosable alcohol use disorder, along with either a causal life-event explanation for the alcohol use disorder behaviors or no explanation. They then made judgments of the need for treatment, psychological abnormality and the stigma they felt toward the person depicted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Causal life-event explanations decreased lay judgments of the need for treatment, psychological abnormality and stigma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that the availability of a causal life-event explanation may have a complex effect on lay judgments, decreasing the likelihood of recommending treatment for alcohol use disorders, yet simultaneously reducing stigmatizing perceptions (and presumably social distance).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA e.weine@neu.edu.
authors.forename: Erienne R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Weine
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, 500 Holmes Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, 316 Robinson Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Alisa K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lincoln
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012929:Psychological Distance; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult