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Review Articles

Reducing anorexia nervosa stigma: an exploration of a social consensus intervention and the moderating effect of blameworthy attributions

, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 506-512 | Received 01 Nov 2017, Accepted 09 Oct 2018, Published online: 12 Mar 2019
 

Abstract

Background: Research suggests that blameworthy attributions towards individuals with anorexia nervosa are common, which in turn elicit more stigmatising attitudes towards those with the disorder. The social consensus approach has been found to reduce stigmatising attitudes in various domains and, as such, is a promising avenue to pursue for ameliorating stigma in anorexia nervosa.

Aims: The present study primarily sought to investigate the effectiveness of a social consensus approach in reducing stigma towards individuals with anorexia nervosa. The study also examined if blameworthy attributions were associated with change in stigma.

Method: An experimental design was employed, where female undergraduate students (N= 126) completed self-report measures that assessed anorexia nervosa stigma at baseline (Time 1) and 6–10 days after allocation to one of two conditions: social consensus and control (Time 2).

Results: The social consensus intervention was more effective than the control condition in reducing stigmatising attitudes on measures assessing affective reactions (p= 0.025) and characteristics attributed to a target with anorexia nervosa (p < 0.001). Level of blame-based attributions did not moderate change in stigma.

Conclusions: Results suggest that a social consensus intervention is promising irrespective of the endorsement of blameworthy attributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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