Carrying weight for the world: Influence of weight descriptors on judgments of large-sized women

摘要

Studies have used a variety of terms, often interchangeably, to describe large-sized people. Using stigma theory as a framework, we presented participants with a personal advertisement in which the advertiser described herself, including her physical size. We manipulated the weight descriptor by including a negative, positive, or objective descriptor, or no descriptor as a control. Participants were 238 undergraduate students who rated the advertiser on 7 semantic differentials. Negative descriptors tended to generate the most negative evaluations, while positive descriptors tended to alleviate some of the stigma associated with being large-sized. However, control targets with no weight descriptor were viewed the most positively. Implications of this study are wide ranging, including applications for research, theory, and clinical practice.