“The results were clear: While higher depression scores were generally linked with lower intentions to seek help from a romantic partner, a close friend, or family members among participants who received the direct message, there was no such relationship for the participants who received a mistargeted message.

According to the researchers, these findings indicate that the mistargeted message was more effective at promoting help-seeking than the direct message was. And a second online study confirmed this pattern of results.” [bold added]

–“Mistargeted Messages Could Spur Help-Seeking for Depression” via Association for Psychological Science’s blog, Observations

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