Stereotypical portrayals of obesity and the expression of implicit weight bias

Hinman, Nova; Burmeister, Jacob M.; Kiefner, Allison E.; Borushok, Jessica; Carels, Robert A.

doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.09.002

Cited by 35 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Studies show that exposure to weight‐stigmatizing media content increases weight‐biased attitudes, including desire for social avoidance and endorsement of negative stereotypes (Pearl, Puhl, & Brownell, ). Stereotypical media images also increase implicit bias in the general public (Carels, Hinman, et al., ; Hinman, Burmeister, Kiefner, Borushok, & Carels, ). Children who are exposed to high levels of mass media (including television, magazines, and video games) report greater dislike of peers with overweight and obesity (Latner, Rosewall, & Simmonds, ).…”

Section: Nature and Extent Of Weight Stigmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Weight Bias and Stigma: Public Health Implications and Structural Solutions

Pearl

2018

Social Issues Policy Review

163

132

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Weight bias is a widespread form of prejudice that leads to the stigmatization of individuals who are perceived to have excess weight. Several psychological theories have been used to explain weight bias and to understand its negative impact on the mental and physical health of individuals with overweight and obesity. Top‐down approaches are needed to reduce weight stigma and its adverse health consequences at the population‐level. Potential targets for stigma‐reduction policies include weight‐based discrimination in the workplace, bullying and discrimination in educational settings, stigma in health care, and stereotypical media portrayals. These proposed policies have strong support from the public and stakeholders and, with further implementation and evaluation, may serve as promising structural interventions for addressing societal weight stigma.

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Section: Nature and Extent Of Weight Stigmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Weight Bias and Stigma: Public Health Implications and Structural Solutions

Pearl

2018

Social Issues Policy Review

163

132

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“…Findings of previous research have suggested that the ways in which media portray obesity have important implications for the explicit and implicit weight bias among audiences (e.g., Gapinski, Schwartz, & Brownell, 2006;Hinman et al, 2015;McClure, Puhl, & Heuer, 2011). Media priming provides a theoretical explanation for this process (Roskos-Ewoldsen et al, 2009).…”

Section: Priming Stereotypical Portrayals Of Obese Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…beliefs and can influence judgments about the stereotyped group. Findings of several empirical studies have demonstrated that exposure to stereotypical portrayals of obesity prompt increased weight bias, including negative attitudes and behavior toward obese individuals (e.g., Hinman, Burmeister, Kiefner, Borushok, & Carels, 2015;Puhl, Luedicke, & Heuer, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Second, it is the first study to investigate media priming effects of exposure to weight loss reality TV shows on weight bias among adolescents. Thus far, studies on the effects of stereotypical portrayals of obesity have used student samples (e.g., Domoff et al, 2012;Hinman et al, 2015;Yoo, 2013). Our contribution is important, because researchers consider the negative consequences of weight bias (e.g., social marginalization) as particularly problematic for adolescents (Puhl & Latner, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

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“Weak, Sad, and Lazy Fatties”: Adolescents’ Explicit and Implicit Weight Bias Following Exposure to Weight Loss Reality TV Shows

Karsay

Schmuck

2017

Media Psychology

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Weight loss reality TV shows, which portray obese individuals and their struggle to lose weight, are highly popular. However, the shows often contain negative and stereotypical portrayals of obese individuals that can contribute to the formation of weight bias among viewers. In particular, adolescents might be highly susceptible to such portrayals, since physical appearance and body image play an important role during adolescence. In our experimental study, we investigated the priming effects of exposure to weight loss reality TV shows on implicit and explicit attitudes toward obese individuals among 353 adolescents. We exposed a treatment group (n = 173) to video clips of a weight loss reality TV show and a control group (n = 180) to video clips of an information-based TV magazine. Results indicated that for individuals who expressed a fear of being obese, exposure to the weight loss reality TV show reinforced negative explicit attitudes toward obese individuals by activating a perception of weight controllability. Exposure to the weight loss reality TV show also enhanced negative implicit attitudes toward obese individuals among all adolescents, irrespective of their fear of being obese. Altogether, our findings underscore the role of media in perpetuating weight bias. Western societies highly stigmatize obesity. Overweight or obese individuals of all ages face multiple forms of discrimination in different situations of daily life, including in health, employment, and educational settings. In perpetuating the stigmatization of obesity, or weight bias, media play an important role. On the one hand, results of content analytical research have provided evidence that various media genres demonstrate weight bias (Ata & Thompson, 2010). In particular, by emphasizing the lack of willpower, isolation, and laziness of obese individuals, reality TV shows depicting weight loss (e.g., The Biggest Loser, Secret Eaters, Extreme Weight Loss) promote the stigmatization and degradation of obese individuals (Sender & Sullivan, 2008). On the other hand, research on media priming has shown that stereotypical portrayals enhance stereotypical CONTACT Kathrin Karsay

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“…A study that investigated adolescent’s attitudes towards their health lifestyle with a focus on overweightness reported that participants held a general lack of interest in their future health but an overall attitude of living to enjoy the moment [21]. Other research measuring implicit weight bias found higher implicit anti-fat attitudes when overweight individuals were portrayed as participating in stereotype consistent activities (e.g., watching television, eating junk food) than when they were depicted engaging in stereotype inconsistent behaviors (e.g., exercising or preparing vegetables), suggesting a stronger mental link between being overweight and being lazy or unhealthy [22]. In another study, body-related worrying was associated with overweight individuals’ negative affect, whereas overweight individuals without body-related worrying had significantly more positive affect [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Weight Can Change How Your Emotions Are Perceived

2016

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Accurately interpreting other’s emotions through facial expressions has important adaptive values for social interactions. However, due to the stereotypical social perception of overweight individuals as carefree, humorous, and light-hearted, the body weight of those with whom we interact may have a systematic influence on our emotion judgment even though it has no relevance to the expressed emotion itself. In this experimental study, we examined the role of body weight in faces on the affective perception of facial expressions. We hypothesized that the weight perceived in a face would bias the assessment of an emotional expression, with overweight faces generally more likely to be perceived as having more positive and less negative expressions than healthy weight faces. Using two-alternative forced-choice perceptual decision tasks, participants were asked to sort the emotional expressions of overweight and healthy weight facial stimuli that had been gradually morphed across six emotional intensity levels into one of two categories—“neutral vs. happy” (Experiment 1) and “neutral vs. sad” (Experiment 2). As predicted, our results demonstrated that overweight faces were more likely to be categorized as happy (i.e., lower happy decision threshold) and less likely to be categorized as sad (i.e., higher sad decision threshold) compared to healthy weight faces that had the same levels of emotional intensity. The neutral-sad decision threshold shift was negatively correlated with participant’s own fear of becoming fat, that is, those without a fear of becoming fat more strongly perceived overweight faces as sad relative to those with a higher fear. These findings demonstrate that the weight of the face systematically influences how its emotional expression is interpreted, suggesting that being overweight may make emotional expressions appear more happy and less sad than they really are.

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Stereotypical portrayals of obesity and the expression of implicit weight bias

Cited by 35 publications

References 23 publications

Weight Bias and Stigma: Public Health Implications and Structural Solutions

Weight Bias and Stigma: Public Health Implications and Structural Solutions

“Weak, Sad, and Lazy Fatties”: Adolescents’ Explicit and Implicit Weight Bias Following Exposure to Weight Loss Reality TV Shows

Body Weight Can Change How Your Emotions Are Perceived

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