Applying the contact hypothesis to anti-fat attitudes: Contact with overweight people is related to how we interact with our bodies and those of others

Hayward, Lydia E.; Hornsey, Matthew J.; Alperin, Anandi; Diedrichs, Phillippa C; Barlow, Fiona Kate

Abstract

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This paper is the first to apply the contact hypothesis, a social psychological theory of prejudice reduction, to the field of weight bias. It aims to investigate whether contact with overweight people is associated with the extent to which people report weight bias, as well as vigilance around their own bodies. In 2013 we recruited 1176 American participants to complete surveys regarding prejudice toward overweight people, as well as a suite of measures capturing people's relationships with their own weight (fat talk, drive for thinness, and body-checking behavior). Positive contact with overweight people predicted decreased prejudice, regardless of whether participants were overweight (p

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Journal: Social Science and Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0277-9536
• Electronic ISSN: 0277-9536
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 123
• Pages: 37-44
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.051
• Keywords: United States, weight bias, anti-fat attitudes, obesity, ; prejudice, stigma, discrimination, body image
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/806887
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.051
• Related Public URLs: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614007047#