Disclosing a concealable stigma has the potential for both positive outcomes, such as receipt of social support, and negative outcomes, such as being the target of prejudice. Identifying a disclosure strategy that minimizes prejudice while increasing the likelihood of social support can build theory regarding the underpinnings of stigma and provide guidance to those with concealable stigmas. Across three experiments, we tested a theory-driven disclosure strategy (perceiving emotional content vs. purely factual content) for stigmatizing conditions that elicit sympathy or disgust. These experiments (N = 363) revealed that for disgust-eliciting stigmas, disclosing with feelings in addition to factual information leads to higher social support, compared to only disclosure of factual information. We tested and replicated this effect across disclosure of both medical and physical health conditions. This research advances our theoretical understanding of disclosure of stigma and offers pragmatic and implementable suggestions for stigma disclosure.

披露可隐藏的污名既可能产生积极的结果，例如获得社会支持，也可能产生消极的结果，例如成为偏见的目标。确定一种能够最大限度地减少偏见同时增加社会支持可能性的披露策略，可以建立关于污名基础的理论，并为那些具有可隐藏污名的人提供指导。在三个实验中，我们测试了一种理论驱动的披露策略（感知情感内容与纯粹的事实内容），以消除引起同情或厌恶的污名化条件。这些实验（N = 363) 表明，对于引起厌恶的污名，与仅披露事实信息相比，除了披露事实信息之外，还带有情感披露会导致更高的社会支持。我们在医疗和身体健康状况的披露中测试并复制了这种影响。这项研究提高了我们对污名披露的理论理解，并为污名披露提供了务实和可实施的建议。