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Updated: Jun 7, 2025
04:48
Control of Eating Behavior Using a Novel Feedback System
Published on: May 8, 2018
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Using stereotype violation to shift causal understanding and attitudes about weight.
Susan Persky1, Junhan Chen2, Kaylee Foor1
1Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, USA.
Eating Behaviors
|November 15, 2024
Summary
Challenging weight stereotypes by showing individuals who defy them can reduce weight bias. Presenting a higher-weight person on a low-calorie diet improved attitudes toward obesity.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Health Psychology
Background:
- Weight stigma is often rooted in stereotypes about diet and body weight.
- Challenging these stereotypes may be a viable strategy for stigma reduction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate an intervention for weight stigma reduction.
- To test if providing exemplars inconsistent with weight bias beliefs can alter stereotypes and reduce stigma.
Main Methods:
- An experimental, web-based study with 682 US participants.
- Randomized assignment to read vignettes about fictional women with high or low body weight and high or low-calorie diets.
- Specific conditions included higher-weight, low-calorie (HWLC) and lower-weight, high-calorie (LWHC) exemplars.
Main Results:
- The HWLC exemplar led to increased genetic attributions, decreased lifestyle attributions, and more positive attitudes toward the exemplar and women with obesity.
- The LWHC exemplar produced more varied responses.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest that stereotype-violating exemplars can influence judgments based on body size and diet.
- This approach offers a potential new avenue for interventions aimed at reducing weight stigma.
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