Incollingo Rodriguez Angela C, Heldreth Courtney M, Tomiyama A Janet
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Sep;24(9):1892-8. doi: 10.1002/oby.21575. Epub 2016 Jul 28.
Although a considerable amount of research has revealed connections between weight stigma and mental and physical health outcomes, no studies to date have experimentally manipulated the experience of obesity to understand how weight stigma causally affects eating behavior, physiology, and psychological well-being. Research has also not yet identified effective strategies for reducing weight stigma.
In this research, the effect of weight stigma on psychological outcomes, unhealthy eating behavior, and the stress hormone cortisol was examined by randomly assigning participants to appear obese by wearing a fat suit or not. It was hypothesized that the physical alteration of participants' apparent body size would lead to similar consequences as those associated with the experience of weight stigma and reduce antifat attitudes.
Supporting these hypotheses, experimentally manipulating apparent body size led participants to consume more unhealthy foods and report higher levels of negative effect. However, the study did not show any differences in cortisol reactivity or reduction in antifat attitudes as a function of the fat suit manipulation.
These findings contribute to an understanding of the potentially deleterious psychological and behavioral effects of weight stigma while also informing future interventions to reduce weight stigma.
尽管大量研究揭示了体重歧视与身心健康结果之间的联系，但迄今为止，尚无研究通过实验操纵肥胖体验来了解体重歧视如何因果性地影响饮食行为、生理状况和心理健康。研究也尚未确定减轻体重歧视的有效策略。
在本研究中，通过随机分配参与者穿或不穿肥大服装以使他们看起来肥胖，来检验体重歧视对心理结果、不健康饮食行为和应激激素皮质醇的影响。研究假设参与者表观体型的生理改变会导致与体重歧视体验相关的类似后果，并减少对肥胖的负面态度。
支持这些假设的是，通过实验操纵表观体型会导致参与者食用更多不健康食物，并报告更高水平的负面影响。然而，该研究并未显示出皮质醇反应性存在任何差异，也未显示出因肥大服装操纵而导致对肥胖的负面态度有所减少。
这些发现有助于理解体重歧视可能产生的有害心理和行为影响，同时也为未来减轻体重歧视的干预措施提供了参考。
