Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Weight Prejudice and Medical Policy: Support for an Ambiguously Discriminatory Policy Is Influenced by Prejudice‐Colored Glasses

Weight Prejudice and Medical Policy: Support for an Ambiguously Discriminatory Policy Is... This study examined the influence of affectively‐based weight prejudice versus weight control beliefs on perceptions of and support for an ambiguously discriminatory medical policy: denying surgery to overweight patients. Participants read a news article describing a new policy in the United Kingdom of denying surgery to overweight patients, and reported their reactions to the policy. Results revealed that participants who scored higher on an affectively‐based measure of weight prejudice that was completed 3–4 weeks before the main session were less likely to perceive the medical policy as discriminatory, more likely to agree with the policy and to support adoption of a similar policy in their own country, and recommended lower body mass index (BMI) cutoff values for denying surgery to overweight patients, whereas weight control beliefs had less of a role to play. In addition, perceptions of the policy as (non)discriminatory mediated the effects of weight prejudice on policy agreement, support, and recommended BMI cutoff. These results indicate that affective prejudice influences individuals' support for an ambiguously discriminatory medical policy, which has important implications for policy makers and researchers. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy Wiley

Weight Prejudice and Medical Policy: Support for an Ambiguously Discriminatory Policy Is Influenced by Prejudice‐Colored Glasses

Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/weight-prejudice-and-medical-policy-support-for-an-ambiguously-UMlivR1SJO
Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
1529-7489
eISSN
1530-2415
DOI
10.1111/j.1530-2415.2009.01175.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study examined the influence of affectively‐based weight prejudice versus weight control beliefs on perceptions of and support for an ambiguously discriminatory medical policy: denying surgery to overweight patients. Participants read a news article describing a new policy in the United Kingdom of denying surgery to overweight patients, and reported their reactions to the policy. Results revealed that participants who scored higher on an affectively‐based measure of weight prejudice that was completed 3–4 weeks before the main session were less likely to perceive the medical policy as discriminatory, more likely to agree with the policy and to support adoption of a similar policy in their own country, and recommended lower body mass index (BMI) cutoff values for denying surgery to overweight patients, whereas weight control beliefs had less of a role to play. In addition, perceptions of the policy as (non)discriminatory mediated the effects of weight prejudice on policy agreement, support, and recommended BMI cutoff. These results indicate that affective prejudice influences individuals' support for an ambiguously discriminatory medical policy, which has important implications for policy makers and researchers.

Journal

Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2009

References

  • The measurement of attitudes toward and beliefs about obese persons
    Allison, D. B.; Basile, V. C.; Yuker, H. E.
  • Changes in perceived weight discrimination among Americans, 1995–1996 through 2004–2006
    Andreyeva, T.; Puhl, R. M.; Brownell, K. D.
  • Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior
    Ashmore, R. D.; Del Boca, F. K.
  • The moderator‐mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations
    Baron, R. M.; Kenny, D.
  • Obese patients denied operations
  • Trust overturns its obese policy
  • Weight bias: Nature, consequences, and remedies
    Brownell, K. D.; Puhl, R. M.; Schwartz, M. B.; Rudd, L.
  • Ageism: A review of research and policy implications
    Bugental, D. B.; Hehman, J. A.
  • The epidemiology of overweight and obesity: Public health crisis or moral panic?
    Campos, P.; Saguy, A.; Ernsberger, P.; Oliver, E.; Gaesser, G.
  • Do heavy‐weight students have more difficulty paying for college?
    Crandall, C. S.
  • Do parents discriminate against their heavyweight daughters?
    Crandall, C. S.
  • A justification‐suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice
    Crandall, C. S.; Eshleman, A.
  • The stigma of overweight: Affective consequences of attributional ambiguity
    Crocker, J.; Cornwell, B.; Major, B.
  • Adoption ban on obese
    Davies, H.
  • The stigma of obesity: The consequences of naïve assumptions concerning the causes of physical deviance
    DeJong, W.
  • From prejudice to intergroup emotions: Differentiated reactions to social groups
    Devos, T.; Silver, L. A.; Mackie, D. M.; Smith, E. R.
  • The social psychology of perceived prejudice and discrimination
    Dion, K. L.
  • Advances in experimental social psychology
    Dovidio, J. F.; Gaertner, S. L.
  • Cognitive and affective bases of attitudes toward social groups and social policies
    Eagly, A. H.; Mladinic, A.; Otto, S.
  • Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception
    Esses, V. M.; Haddock, G.; Zanna, M. P.
  • European review of social psychology
    Esses, V. M.; Maio, G. R.
  • Primary care physicians' attitudes about obesity and its treatment
    Foster, G. D.; Wadden, T. A.; Makris, A. P.; Davidson, D.; Sanderson, R.; Allison, D. B.; Kessler, A.
  • Ban IVF for the obese, say doctors
    Foster, K.
  • Prejudice, discrimination, and racism
    Gaertner, S. L.; Dovidio, J. F.
  • Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity
    Goffman, E.
  • Attitudes: Their structure, function, and consequences
    Haddock, G.; Zanna, M. P.; Esses, V. M.
  • Dehumanization: An integrative review
    Haslam, N.
  • Perceptions of obesity across the lifespan
    Hebl, M. R.; Ruggs, E. N.; Singletary, S. L.; Beal, D. J.
  • The stigma of obesity in customer service: A mechanism for remediation and bottom‐line consequences of interpersonal discrimination
    King, E. B.; Shapiro, J. R.; Hebl, M. R.; Singletary, S. L.; Turner, S.
  • Prejudice toward fat people: The development and validation of the antifat attitudes test
    Lewis, R. J.; Cash, T. F.; Jacobi, L.; Bubb‐Lewis, C.
  • Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence
    Lord, C. G.; Ross, L.; Lepper, M. R.
  • From prejudice to intergroup emotions: Differentiated reactions to social groups
    Mackie, D. M.; Smith, E. R.
  • Biased assimilation, attitude polarization, and affect in reactions to stereotype‐relevant scientific information
    Munro, G. D.; Ditto, P. H.
  • The epidemiology of obesity
    Ogden, C. L.; Yanovski, S. Z.; Carroll, M. D.; Flegal, K. M.
  • Interpersonal perspectives on Black‐White health disparities: Social policy implications
    Penner, L. A.; Albrecht, T. L.; Coleman, D. K.; Norton, W. E.
  • Us and them: Social categorization and the process of ingroup bias
    Perdue, C. W.; Dovidio, J. F.; Gurtman, M. B.; Tyler, R. B.
  • Bias, discrimination, and obesity
    Puhl, R.; Brownell, K. D.
  • When ideology hurts: Effects of belief in the protestant ethic and feeling overweight on the psychological well‐being of women
    Quinn, D. M.; Crocker, J.
  • Weight‐based discrimination in employment: Psychological and legal aspects
    Roehling, M. V.
  • Affective and cognitive determinants of prejudice
    Stangor, C.; Sullivan, L. A.; Ford, T. E.
  • Demonstrations of implicit anti‐fat bias: The impact of providing causal information and evoking empathy
    Teachman, B. A.; Gapinski, K. D.; Brownell, K. D.; Rawlins, M.; Jeyaram, S.
  • Differential relationships between intergroup contact and affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice
    Tropp, L. R.; Pettigrew, T. F.
  • The social psychology of knowledge
    Zanna, M. P.; Rempel, J. K.