Goldkorn Maya, Schwartz Barry, Monterosso John
The College University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA.
Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley Berkeley California USA.
Obes Sci Pract. 2025 Apr 22;11(2):e70041. doi: 10.1002/osp4.70041. eCollection 2025 Apr.
The experience of obesity stigma is associated with negative clinical outcomes that include increased mental health problems and additional weight gain. Researchers have treated the public view that obesity is caused by poor willpower as both an of obesity stigma and as a of obesity stigma. Here we test the hypothesis that awareness of new and effective glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist anti-obesity medications (AOMs) will encourage the view that obesity is a biologically-determined medical condition rather than a personal willpower failure and thereby lessen obesity stigma.
Two questionnaire studies, in which participants were randomly assigned to either read about the success of AOMs or to read various alternative material ( = 640 in total), investigated the effect that AOM awareness has on views of obesity.
Contrary to the study hypotheses, reading about AOMs did not increase the degree to which participants viewed obesity as a medical condition, nor did it reduce the role willpower failure was believed to play in obesity. Across conditions, participants reporting more personal success in weight loss without medication indicated greater belief that obesity was amenable to self-control, expressed greater obesity stigma, and held less positive attitudes toward the use of AOMs to manage weight.
Taken together, these two studies provide no evidence that the success of AOMs will, in the short-term, lead to changes in how people view the etiology of obesity or to a reduction in obesity stigma. Correlational data suggest the possibility that blame and stigma associated with obesity may be robustly informed by participants' understanding of their own experiences managing weight.
肥胖污名化的经历与负面临床结果相关，包括心理健康问题增加和体重进一步增加。研究人员将公众认为肥胖是由意志力薄弱导致的观点，既视为肥胖污名化的一个来源，也视为肥胖污名化的一个后果。在此，我们检验这样一个假设，即了解新型有效的胰高血糖素样肽受体激动剂抗肥胖药物（AOMs）将促使人们认为肥胖是一种由生物学因素决定的医学状况，而非个人意志力的失败，从而减轻肥胖污名。
两项问卷调查研究，参与者被随机分配阅读有关AOMs成功案例的内容或阅读各种其他材料（总共640人），调查了对AOMs的了解对肥胖观念的影响。
与研究假设相反，阅读有关AOMs的内容并未增加参与者将肥胖视为医学状况的程度，也未减少人们认为意志力失败在肥胖中所起的作用。在所有条件下，报告在未使用药物的情况下个人减肥更成功的参与者，更坚信肥胖可以通过自我控制解决，表现出更强的肥胖污名化，并且对使用AOMs来控制体重的态度也更不积极。
综合来看，这两项研究没有提供证据表明AOMs的成功在短期内会导致人们对肥胖病因看法的改变或肥胖污名化的减轻。相关数据表明，与肥胖相关的指责和污名化可能很大程度上受到参与者对自身体重管理经历的理解的影响。
