Using Educational Videos and Perspective-Taking to Communicate Gene-By-Environment Interaction Concepts about Eating Behavior: Effects on Empathy and Weight Stigma

Teaching gene-environment interaction concepts with narrative vignettes: Effects on knowledge, stigma, and behavior motivation

“…In the control condition, participants first watched an educational video about spicy food, and then watched a vignette video that demonstrated how one’s experience during a dinner party might unfold differently if the food spice level was different. The educational videos were created by the research team based on an earlier version in a previous study [ 10 ]. Links to all videos are available in S1 Appendix .…”

“…Participants’ confidence in their ability to control their diet and weight was measured using 4 items on a scale of 1 = Not at all to 5 = Extremely . The measure was adapted from Martingano et al [ 10 ]. The items are “How confident are you in your ability to control your diet/weight?” and “How much do you believe that there are things you can do to control your diet/weight?” (α = .84).…”

“…Intention to change diet in the next 6 months was measured using 6 items adapted from Martingano et al [ 10 ] on a scale of 1 = Not at all to 5 = Extremely . Example items are “How likely is it that you will change your diet in the next 6 months?” and “I intend to make changes to my food environment in the next 6 months?” (α = .96).…”

“…This approach was used because first-person narratives can make scientific concepts more relevant and accessible, enhancing content understanding and retention of the educational content [ 49 , 50 ]. Moreover, perspective-taking can be helpful in generating empathy and reducing stigma [ 10 , 51 , 52 ].…”

“…GxE concepts underlie a proper understanding of complex disease risk and risk-reducing behavior, which is crucial for individual health decision-making and is especially helpful for those at high genetic risk [5][6][7]. Better understanding of GxE has been associated with less deterministic thinking about health outcomes, heightened consideration of environmental and behavioral factors that influence health conditions, stronger motivation to adopt risk-reducing behaviors, and reduced stigmatization of individuals with certain health conditions [8][9][10]. Given their importance, GxE concepts have long been targeted for education across public health, healthcare, and science education domains [6,7,11].…”