Is Obesity Stigma Based on Perceptions of Appearance or Character? Theory, Evidence, and Directions for Further Study

Impact of body image and perceived stigmatization on the psychological wellbeing of obese women in Kumasi metropolis, Ghana

Obesity is found to have a significant impact on body image perception and overall well-being. This study examines the impact of body image and perceived stigmatization on the psychological wellbeing of obese women in Kumasi metropolis, Ghana. A sample of 231 obese women was selected from health shops and some fitness centers using snowballing technique (purposive, snowballing technique and convenience). The study employed the descriptive survey design and made use of both descriptive and inferential data analysis approaches. The body shape questionnaire BSQ-34, the inventory of the Stigmatization Situation (SSI) and finally, the psychological well-being tools were used. Also, frequency distributions mean, and standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient and simple linear regression analysis were employed using SPSS version 23. Our findings indicated that obese women in the Kumasi metropolis were significantly satisfied with their body image. This is a true reflection of their higher self-esteem and standard of living. The body image and perceived stigmatization on the psychological wellbeing of the obese do have some counselling implications. Counselors, nutritionists, and clinical psychologists address specific schemes such as binge eating, dieting, and exercising to build the self-esteem of obese women.

Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations.

Updating Long-Held Assumptions About Fat Stigma: For Women, Body Shape Plays a Critical Role

Heavier bodies—particularly female bodies—are stigmatized. Such fat stigma is pervasive, painful to experience, and may even facilitate weight gain, thereby perpetuating the weight-stigma cycle. Leveraging research on functionally distinct forms of fat (deposited on different parts of the body), we propose that body shape plays an important but largely underappreciated role in fat stigma, above and beyond fat amount. Across three samples varying in participant ethnicity (White and Black Americans) and nation (United States, India), patterns of fat stigma reveal that, as hypothesized, participants differently stigmatized equally overweight or equally obese female targets as a function of target shape, sometimes even more strongly stigmatizing targets with less rather than more body mass. Such findings suggest value in updating our understanding of fat stigma to include body shape and in querying a predominating, but often implicit, theoretical assumption that people simply view all fat as ‘bad’ (and more fat as ‘worse’).

Comparing and Predicting Public Attitudes Toward Stuttering, Obesity, and Mental Illness

Purpose Extensive research on public attitudes has documented stigma toward stuttering, obesity, and mental illness; however, most studies have focused on only one of these conditions. This study sought to compare public attitudes toward stuttering, obesity, and mental illness as well as to identify the predictive potential of four ratings relating to these and other neutral or desirable conditions. Method Five hundred respondents who were selected from each of three international databases filled out the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes (POSHA) for stuttering, obesity, or mental illness. The POSHA surveys were as similar as possible, and all contained four general items asking respondents' "impression" of the attribute, extent to which he or she "wants to be/have" that attribute, "amount known" about the attribute, and "persons known" who manifest the attribute, for stuttering, obesity, and mental illness plus two others, namely, left-handedness and intelligence. The POSHA surveys also had the same summary scores, Beliefs, Self-Reactions, and an Overall Score. Results Summary scores for the three POSHA surveys in the 500-respondent samples revealed negative attitudes toward all three conditions, the most positive being toward obesity, followed by stuttering and then by mental illness. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that various general items had significant prediction potential not only of attitudes for the same condition but also of attitudes for other conditions. The greatest other condition predictions were between stuttering and mental illness. Conclusions Stuttering is regarded as less stigmatizing than mental illness but more stigmatizing than obesity. Additionally, positivity toward one condition results in limited positivity toward the others. Impressions and knowledge of-as well as experience with-stigmatized conditions can inform public awareness campaigns and individual clinical programs dealing with stigma. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12860939.

Simbayi L, Barré I, Dovidio JF. The Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework: a global, crosscutting framework to inform research, intervention development, and policy on health-related stigmas

Stigma is a well-documented barrier to health seeking behavior, engagement in care and adherence to treatment across a range of health conditions globally. In order to halt the stigmatization process and mitigate the harmful consequences of health-related stigma (i.e. stigma associated with health conditions), it is critical to have an explicit theoretical framework to guide intervention development, measurement, research, and policy. Existing stigma frameworks typically focus on one health condition in isolation and often concentrate on the psychological pathways occurring among individuals. This tendency has encouraged a siloed approach to research on health-related stigmas, focusing on individuals, impeding both comparisons across stigmatized conditions and research on innovations to reduce health-related stigma and improve health outcomes. We propose the Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework, which is a global, crosscutting framework based on theory, research, and practice, and demonstrate its application to a range of health conditions, including leprosy, epilepsy, mental health, cancer, HIV, and obesity/overweight. We also discuss how stigma related to race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and occupation intersects with health-related stigmas, and examine how the framework can be used to enhance research, programming, and policy efforts. Research and interventions inspired by a common framework will enable the field to identify similarities and differences in stigma processes across diseases and will amplify our collective ability to respond effectively and at-scale to a major driver of poor health outcomes globally.

The effects of a teaching intervention on weight bias among kinesiology undergraduate students

OBJECTIVES

Weight bias is present among kinesiology professionals and this may cause a significant negative impact on their clients with obesity. Thus, our objective was to test if learning about uncontrollable cause of obesity and about weight bias would reduce explicit and implicit weight bias among kinesiology undergraduate students compared to the traditional curriculum which is more focused on controllable causes of weight gain.

METHODS

We recruited undergraduates from two classes of the same kinesiology major course taught by the same instructor. In-class teaching activities consisted of 80 min lecture on day 1, video watching session and a group activity on day 3 for both groups. Intervention group (n = 33) learned about uncontrollable causes of obesity and about weight bias and had activities to evoke empathy. Control group (n = 34) learned the traditional curriculum where they learned the role of exercise and diet in weight management. We measured explicit and implicit weight bias using Anti-Fat Attitude Test (AFAT) and Implicit Association Test (IAT), respectively pre-intervention, immediate post intervention and 1 month later.

RESULTS

In mixed model analysis, AFAT Blame scores had significant group by time interaction (p < 0.001). Blame scores significantly reduced with mean differences (standard error (SE)) of -0.35 (0.08) post intervention (p < 0.001) and persisted to be reduced with mean differences (SE) of -0.39 (0.08) even after 4-week follow-up (p < 0.001) only in the intervention group. Odds of having less implicit weight bias was significantly lower at 4-week follow-up than pre-intervention (odds ratio = 0.4; 95% CI: 0.22-0.73) in the control group but no changes were seen in the intervention group.

CONCLUSIONS

"Blame" component of explicit weight bias significantly decreased when students learned about controllable causes of obesity and weight bias, but implicit bias did not reduce. However, implicit weight bias appears to increase when education on obesity is limited to diet and exercise interventions as taught in the traditional curriculum.

Implicit and explicit anti-fat bias: The role of weight-related attitudes and beliefs

INTRODUCTION

The increasing prevalence of anti-fat bias in American society comes at a great cost to the health and well-being of people who are overweight or obese. A better understanding of the correlates of anti-fat bias would inform development of interventions for reducing anti-fat bias. Based on three theoretical perspectives, this study tested the relation between attitudes and beliefs about weight and anti-fat bias (implicit and explicit): (1) The belief that one is like people who are fat (social identity theory). (2) The belief that one can control her/his weight (attribution theory). And (3) the beliefs that most people prefer thin people and that weight is important (socio-cultural theory).

METHODS

Participants were 66,799 volunteers (47,265 women, mean age of 27.88 ± 11.9 years) who completed the Thin-Fat Implicit Association Test on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) during 2016. Explicit anti-fat bias and weight-related attitudes and beliefs were assessed by self-report. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to examine links between weight-related attitudes and beliefs and anti-fat bias.

RESULTS

All tested weight-related attitudes and beliefs were significantly (p < .001) correlated with explicit and implicit anti-fat bias, but some of the correlations were very weak. An examination of the relative contribution of the tested weight-related attitudes and beliefs to a model explaining anti-fat bias suggested that the strongest correlates of explicit anti-fat bias were the beliefs that weight was important (β = 0.194, p < .001), that most people prefer thin people (β = 0.177, p < .001), and that the respondent was like people who are fat (β = -0.180, p < .001).

DISCUSSION

The social-identity and socio-cultural theories may provide a stronger explanation for anti-fat bias relative to attribution theory. Future research could use longitudinal designs with more reliable measures in order to verify these cross-sectional findings.