The effect of weight controllability beliefs on prejudice and self-efficacy

An experiment was conducted to test for the presence of prejudice towards obesity and whether weight controllability beliefs information reduces this prejudice and impacts on a person's own healthy eating self-efficacy. The experiment randomly allocated 346 participants (49 males) into one of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2016-03, Vol.4, p.e1764-e1764, Article e1764
Main Authors: Thorsteinsson, Einar B, Loi, Natasha M, Breadsell, Dana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Clinical outcomes
Exercise
Health care
Health psychology
Motivation
Nutrition research
Obesity
Perceptions
Prejudice
Psychiatry and Psychology
Public Health
Self-efficacy
Social psychology
Society
Stereotypes
Stigma
Weight control
Weight management
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Summary:An experiment was conducted to test for the presence of prejudice towards obesity and whether weight controllability beliefs information reduces this prejudice and impacts on a person's own healthy eating self-efficacy. The experiment randomly allocated 346 participants (49 males) into one of three conditions: controllable contributors toward obesity condition (e.g., information about personal control about diet and exercise); uncontrollable contributors toward obesity condition (e.g., information about genes, factors in society); and a control condition with no information given. Prejudice was present in 81% of the sample. High prejudice was predicted by low self-efficacy for exercise and weight. Weight controllability beliefs information had no significant effect on prejudice levels or exercise or healthy eating self-efficacy levels. Future research directions are discussed.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.1764