People may withhold useful information from others to avoid becoming associated with a stigmatized service. A field experiment with 849 Syrian refugee friend groups shows, first, low willingness to share information about mental health services, despite largely accurate knowledge of friends’ need. But giving social cover, by encouraging individuals to disclose they are paid to share information, raises sharing rates by 34%. Effects are strongest for senders who used mental health services previously. Without social cover, senders ration messages to their highest need friends. Social cover led to more sharing from experienced users, generating greater social connectedness and noisy increases in services use.

IPA supported the initial development of this study in 2022, including partnership building and preliminary qualitative research to better understand the mental health burden, available services, and stigma surrounding mental health services among Syrian refugees in Jordan.