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Abstract
News coverage of obesity has increased dramatically in recent years, and research shows that media content may contribute to negative public attitudes toward obese people. However, no work has assessed whether photographic portrayals of obese people that accompany news stories affect attitudes. In the present study, the authors used a randomized experimental design to test whether viewing photographic portrayals of an obese person in a stereotypical or unflattering way (versus a nonstereotypical or flattering portrayal) could increase negative attitudes about obesity, even when the content of an accompanying news story is neutral. The authors randomly assigned 188 adult participants to read a neutral news story about the prevalence of obesity that was paired with 1 of 4 photographic portrayals of an obese adult (or no photograph). The authors subsequently assessed attitudes toward obese people using the Fat Phobia Scale. Participants in all conditions expressed a moderate level of fat phobia (M = 3.83, SD = 0.58). Results indicated that participants who viewed the negative photographs expressed more negative attitudes toward obese people than did those who viewed the positive photographs. Implications of these findings for the media are discussed, with emphasis on increasing awareness of weight bias in health communication and journalistic news reporting.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
Notes
1For additional information regarding images of obese persons that can be used for research purposes, please visit the following weblink: http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/press/image_gallery_intro.aspx. This website provides a repository of free images of obese persons engaging in non-stereotypical activities. While these are not the exact images used in the present study, they are similar to the experimental stimuli, and can be used by researchers for educational or research purposes.
*Percentage of participants who “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with adjectives.
2Full correlation matrix is available from the authors upon request.