Culture, health, and bigotry: How exposure to cultural accounts of fatness shape attitudes about health risk, health policies, and weight-based prejudice

Social Science & Medicine
David FrederickKjerstin Gruys

Abstract

We conducted three experiments to examine how cultural frames shape attitudes about health, focusing on obesity, which is considered a public health crisis and is imbued with symbolic meaning. College students (Ns = 99, 114, and 293) read news articles that presented high body weight according to one or more of the following frames: 1) public health crisis; 2) personal responsibility; 3) health at every size (HAES); or 4) fat rights. Compared to people who read the HAES and Fat Rights articles, those who read the Public Health Crisis and Personal Responsibility articles expressed more belief in the health risks of being fat (ds = 1.28 to 1.79), belief that fat people should pay more for insurance (ds = 0.53 to 0.71), anti-fat prejudice (ds = 0.61 to 0.69), willingness to discriminate against fat people (ds = 0.41 to 0.59), and less willingness to celebrate body-size diversity (ds = 0.77 to 1.07). They were less willing to say women at the lower end of the obese range could be healthy. Exposure to these articles increased support for price-raising policies to curb obesity but not support for redistributive or compensatory policies. In Experiment 3, in comparison to a control condition, exposure to HAES or Fat Rights frames signi...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 9, 2016·Neurogastroenterology and Motility : the Official Journal of the European Gastrointestinal Motility Society·T H TaftL Keefer
Sep 24, 2016·Journal of Medical Ethics·Phoebe Friesen
Apr 14, 2019·International Journal of Health Policy and Management·Niyi AwofesoArwa Ahmed
Dec 11, 2019·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Elnaz Moghimi, Mary E Wiktorowicz
Mar 23, 2021·Archives of Sexual Behavior·David A Frederick, Tania A Reynolds
Aug 31, 2021·Occupational Therapy in Health Care·Carli FriedmanLaura VanPuymbrouck
Sep 11, 2021·Obesity Reviews : an Official Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity·Briony HillHelen Skouteris

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