A qualitative analysis of people’s experiences with weight-based discrimination

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe people’s day-to-day experiences with weight-based discrimination and to distill themes that shed new light on this phenomenon.

Design

A qualitative study was conducted in 2019 using a purposive sampling strategy. A racially and ethnically diverse sample of 32 U.S. adult men and women with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m² completed a semi-structured interview.

Results

Primary types of interpersonal weight-based discrimination included offensive comments, negative assumptions, social rejection, and unwanted attention or bullying. Participants also encountered environmental sources of weight bias such as inadequate seating in public venues. Three higher order themes that cut across people’s experiences with weight-based discrimination were identified: 1) the often-ambiguous nature of weight-based discrimination; 2) intersections between body weight and other social identities; and 3) the role of social comparison processes.

Conclusion

Findings provide a detailed portrait of people’s everyday experiences with weight-based discrimination. These experiences often reflected widely held negative stereotypes about people with higher body weight and conveyed the socially devalued status of higher-weight individuals in society. Findings have important implications for future research and interventions aimed at reducing the harmful effects of weight-based discrimination on health and emotional wellbeing.

Keywords:

• Weight-based discrimination
• weight stigma
• obesity
• qualitative
• United States

Acknowledgements

We thank Amanda Kirsch for her assistance with screening and scheduling participants and Anet Crespo for her guidance on this process. We are also grateful to our participants for sharing their experiences with us. Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (April 2020 and April 2021) and the Florida Medical Association (August 2020).

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, MG, upon reasonable request.