Public health warnings may add to social stigma. Researchers
created a hypothetical disease and issued 16 different alerts
describing the virus and those infected. Alerts indicated
visible and non-visible symptoms and whether diseases were fatal
or mild. One of the findings showed that people were most likely
to share the stigma message if symptoms were visible. Visible
symptoms might suggest that infected persons are different, and
could facilitate a social bond among those spreading the stigma
message, or rumor.