Reducing obesity stigma via a brief documentary film: A randomized trial. Author Jacob Burmeister, Maija Taylor, James Rossi, Allison Kiefner-Burmeister, Jessica Borushok, Robert Carels Publication Year 2017 Type Journal Article Abstract The stigma of obesity impacts individuals across numerous life domains, and people with obesity are offered little legal protection against discrimination based on their body type. While a number of experiments have shown that stigmatizing attitudes toward obesity are somewhat malleable, fewer studies have tested the impact of interventions deployable outside of the lab. Fewer still have measured the impact on individuals’ support for equal rights for people with obesity. This randomized trial examined the effects of viewing the weight stigma portion of HBO’s The Weight of the Nation documentary on viewers’ attitudes about obesity across several important domains, including support for equal rights for those with obesity relative to control participants. Participants were 109 young adults who watched a portion of HBO’s The Weight of the Nation documentary or a control video. Following completion of the video, participants were asked to volunteer for a second unrelated study on prejudice in an adjacent computer lab. It was under the guise of this “unrelated study” that weight bias was assessed. Participants’ negative judgments of people with obesity, desire for social distance, and support for equal rights for people with obesity improved after watching the video. Their perceived attractiveness of people with obesity did not change relative to the control condition. This study finds support for the use of a brief documentary film as a means to reduce stigma against persons with obesity. Keywords obesity, media, anti-fat bias, stigma, equal rights Journal Stigma and Health Volume 2 Pages 43-52 Type of Article Journal Article DOI 10.1037/sah0000040 Full text The following is an excerpt of the intervention methodology. For more information, please see the full text of the article on the publisher's website or through your institution's library. Method Participants were 109 undergraduates (Mage = 18.65, SD = 1.23) enrolled at a medium-sized university in the Midwestern United States who received course credit for participation. Participants identified themselves as female (77%), White (73%), Black (12.2%), Hispanic (4.3%), Asian (1.7%), and other (8.7%). Average body mass index (BMI) was 24.2 (SD 4.8). [...] Procedure After consenting to participate, participants provided their demographic information and completed a pretest measure of obesity stigma (i.e., Universal Measure of Bias—Fat [UMB]). [...] Randomization was conducted via coin flip for each day participant groups were scheduled. In groups of five to 15, participants viewed either the weight stigma reduction video or the control video. Following the film, participants filled out a 20- item distraction questionnaire about their attitudes toward the people in the video. [...] The distraction questionnaire was made by modifying the Attitudes Toward Obese Persons scale [...] After completing the mock questionnaire, participants were asked to volunteer for a second unrelated study in an adjacent computer lab. It was under the guise of this “unrelated study” that the dependent measure (UMB) was deployed. Measures UMB. The UMB is a 20-item measure of attitudes toward obese individuals, with responses measured on a 7-point Likert scale [...] Importantly, the UMB assesses several forms of social stigma via four subscales. [...] Intervention Participants in the experimental condition viewed the weight stigma section of The Weight of the Nation. Participants in the control condition viewed 17 min of a film titled Overtaken [...] Type of Prejudice/Bias Body size Country United States Method Lab Setting College/University Google ScholarDOIBibTeX
