“i'd exercise caution, but be discreet about it”: Comparing undergraduates’ stigma toward peers with criminal records and mental health disorders

Background Stigma remains a significant barrier to educational attainment for individuals with criminal records or mental illness, yet little is known about how college students perceive peers with these stigmatized backgrounds. Methods Undergraduates ( N  = 419) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions to assess attitudes: (a) no disclosed background (control), (b) a mental health diagnosis, or (c) a criminal record. They completed a version of the Situational Attitudes Scale (SAS), wherein they read a series of short vignettes and rated their emotional reactions (e.g., anger, fear) to each scenario. Participants also responded to open-ended questions about societal and personal attitudes toward individuals in their assigned condition. Results SAS scores were statistically similar between the control and mental illness conditions, whereas the criminal background condition scored significantly lower than both. Sentiment analysis of open-ended responses revealed a more graded pattern: responses to the criminal background condition were rated significantly less positive than the other two, whereas the mental illness condition was also rated lower than the control. Importantly, these patterns emerged while adjusting for key demographic and psychosocial covariates, including social desirability, prior justice system involvement, and trait-based measures (e.g., dark tetrad, light triad). Conclusion Stigma toward individuals with criminal backgrounds may differ in both form and intensity than toward other groups. These results underscore the value of combining direct and indirect measures of stigma to capture subtle but meaningful variations in how bias is expressed. Given the critical role of educational attainment as both a social determinant of health and a protective factor against recidivism, addressing campus climate is essential—not only to support students with stigmatized backgrounds, but also to advance equity and well-being within academic institutions and the communities they serve.