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Getting the facts |
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An eye-opening study by a Marlene Schwartz-led team graphically illustrated the severity of weight bias when many subjects reported they would rather lose a year of their lives than be obese. Some subjects also reported alcoholism, divorce and depression as acceptable trade-offs to avoid obesity. Stigmatizing overweight people makes them less likely to diet and more likely to find comfort in food, according to a study by Rebecca Puhl and Kelly Brownell. Health care providers as well as family members were frequent sources of bias, the study found. The damage done by bias was starkly illustrated by another paper authored by Puhl and her colleagues that demonstrated a link between internalizing negative weight stereotypes and binge eating. Her forthcoming paper in Psychological Bulletin summarizes the science on weight bias and youth. She looks at the sources and the emotional and physical damage done by stigmatization and issues a call for more effective interventions to reduce stigma. Rudd scientists further contributed to our knowledge about weight stigma and its consequences by authoring book chapters and calls for reform in professional journals [1 2 3] . We get many requests for our articles from scholars worldwide, including people in Canada, Europe, China and Hong Kong. Our work has a lasting impact, as shown by the 2001 article by Puhl and Brownell on weight bias that remains the second most frequently read article in the top journal Obesity. » Next: Spreading the news |
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©2007 Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University. |
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