Alexander and Link (2003) examined contract with the mentally ill and the stigma of mental illness, perceptions of dangerousness and social distance in a telephone survey. They found that, as a participant’s own life contract with mentally ill individuals increased, participants were both less likely to perceive a target mentally ill individual in a vignette as physically dangerous and less likely to desire social distance from the target. This relationship remained after controlling for demographic and confound variables, such as gender, ethnicity, education, income and political conservatism. They also found that any type of contract- with a friend, a spouse, a family member, a work contract, or a contract in a public place- with mentally ill individuals reduced perceptions of dangerousness of the target in the vignette. Thus, according to Alexander and link (2003), any contract with the mentally ill is associated with reduced fear and rejection. However, since this study was observational in nature, we cannot know if contract reduces fear or having lower fear increased contract.