INTERVIEW: Jeffrey Hunger Flashcards
What does he study?
prejudice, particularly in regards to weight-based stigma
psychological and physiological consequences of interacting with an “anti-fat” peer
What guides his work?
What are the mental / physical consequences of being a target of stigma
Why is this an important area of research?
In US see racial disparities in health as well as normal racism
- Ex. rates of covid death
Stigma is a predictor of broad negative consequences (mental health, physical health, etc)
How is weight stigma different from other types of stigma? (ex. race, gender)
Weight is still seen as under someone’s control (unlike race and gender)
Are we going to see a shift from weight being “under someone’s control” to “more fixed”? Ex. being gay, or having a mental disorder
We have seen the anti gay and mental health stigma go down, while anti fat bias is rising
What are possible interventions to change peoples thoughts about weight?
Doctors for example tend to study a weight based model, where patients should lose weight to improve lives, it is hard to pull them out of this
Why did he find it important to run a confederate study?
Feels more real, and the confederates bias was just read about before hand - and nothing was expressed in the actual interaction
- So not being outright discriminatory to people
What is the value in using cardio physiological data? (ex. heart rate)
Show’s a clear connection between factor and heart rate response
- Also increased heart rate predicts heart disease (links long term health outcomes to the lab study)
- Ex. if ppl are stressing daily because of prejudice for 30 years, what is the long term outcome
He used female participants exclusively
Is there a gender difference?
Women experience more discrimination on basis of weight
Women also anticipate this treatment more then men do
SO women might experience them more, but once anyone from either sex experiences it, the consequences are the same
(so expect same results from men)
When might there be a gender difference?
When the domain / context is different
Ex. men tend to feel less threated about weight in dating context
Women are more stigmatized in romantic relationships
(Or employment)
What would he like to see future studies look into?
How things work with multiple stigmatized identities
Is weight stigma the same for black women as it is for white women
Most literature is white women rn
How is it harder to make studies that target intersectionality?
In this study they used white women with white confederates
If we are looking for an intersectional lens, we need to carefully select the confederate to not add outside factors
What does he hope the field tackles in 5-10 years?
Collaborating with public health scholars to implement recent research to doctors
Should also connect to clinical psychology (ex. how weight impacts disordered eating)
