Research on labeling has been criticized for neglecting individual-level responses to being labeled. The authors examine labeling as social influence, focusing on the “relational distance” between the labeler and the labelee and how this affects the labelee's “avowal,” or acceptance, of mental evaluations. The authors report results showing that participants more strongly accepted mental evaluations from a randomly assigned, less relationally distant evaluator, regardless of either participants' actual depression levels or the content of randomly assigned mental evaluations. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for understanding race differences in reactions to labeling and for integrating labeling arguments with ideas concerning re-integrative shaming.
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