Literature on mental illness stigma exists in several disciplines including social psychology and sociology. The existing research is primarily descriptive and confirms that public attitudes toward people with mental illness are generally negative. Building on the existing knowledge, this study will integrate political ideology and labeling theory perspectives into an attribution model to understand the nature of mental illness stigma and the determinants of discriminatory behavior towards individuals with mental illness. Data from the vignette experiment contained in the MacArthur Mental Health Module of the 1996 General Social Survey is used to examine the influence of political ideology, causal attributions, illness course, and perceptions of dangerousness on several types of behavior. Results of path analysis with manifest variables suggest that while perceived dangerousness and illness condition were the primary predictors of desire for social distance; conservatism, illness condition, attributions of bad character, dangerousness, and beliefs about illness course are significant predictors of support for coercive treatment. Political ideology was the only significant predictor of support for government provision of mental health services. Thus, the analysis suggests that cognitive processes may differ depending on the behavioral outcome in question. This would indicate that stigma change strategies should be tailored to specific desired behavioral outcomes. This study was based on a deliberative attributional cognitive process. Future research should examine both deliberative and automatic cognitive processes.