To examine the associations between beliefs about the causes of depression, schizophrenia, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stigmatising attitudes towards people with these disorders.

In 2011, telephone interviews were carried out with 6019 Australians aged 15 or over. Participants were presented with a case vignette describing either depression, depression with suicidal thoughts, early schizophrenia, chronic schizophrenia, social phobia or PTSD. Participants were asked about their beliefs about the causes of these disorders and about their personally held stigmatising attitudes, stigmatising attitudes perceived in others and the desire for social distance from the person described in the vignette.

Belief in a weak or nervous personality as the cause of mental disorders was most consistently associated with personal stigma, perceived stigma and desire for social distance across vignettes. Belief in biogenetic causes was associated with a decreased belief in mental disorders as due to weakness rather than sickness, but was not linked to either a decreased or increased belief in dangerousness and unpredictability or desire for social distance. Belief in physical causes was associated with an increased belief in mental disorders as due to weakness rather than sickness. Belief in psychosocial causes had no consistent associations with stigma.

Explaining mental disorders as due to personality characteristics is a more important factor in stigma than either biogenetic or psychosocial explanations.