Building and maintaining a healthy reputation is a core aspect of social life. Up to 80% of everyday speech is gossip, which communicates reputational information (Emler 1994). The widespread uptake of social media platforms and online reputation systems (such as star ratings) has led to a rapid expansion in the complexity and reach of personal and professional reputations. Despite this, reputation has attracted curiously little attention from mental health researchers.

In this talk, Dr James Tranter will present preliminary insights from his doctoral research into reputation and mental health. He will invite you to join him in considering questions about how we understand the meaning of reputation in the context of mental health, the impacts of living with mental illness on reputations and reputational thinking, and the links between reputation and key mental health concepts such as stigma, confidentiality, trust, loneliness, shame, and identity formation.