Societal attitudes toward obese persons are predominantly negative, and many health care professionals share these beliefs. This study compared attitudes toward obese persons of 67 US nurses to those of 107 Canadian nurses. Also, attitudes toward obesity were examined as a particular class of prejudice. A positive correlation was hypothesized between ethnic prejudice and prejudice regarding obese persons. Significant differences in attitudes toward obese patients were observed between the two groups on several questionnaire items, and the hypothesis was confirmed by the moderate r of .53 for US nurses. A surprising finding was a new target of ethnic prejudice: the Caucasian majority.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.