Dipole polarizability, one of the fundamental properties of a nucleus, studied in elastic scattering experiments has been reviewed here. For strongly bound nuclei the effect of dipole polarizability is usually negligible. However, for weakly bound nuclei, where the dipole strength extends to low excitation energies, it does play a major role. This effect has already been examined in the scattering of the lightest weakly-bound stable nuclei, viz., d, 3 He, and 7 Li. In the present work we have studied it for the weakly bound unstable borromean nucleus, 6 He, using the elastic scattering data available at energies around the Coulomb barrier with a 208 Pb target.