Applying evaluative conditioning to combat obesity prejudice in gym environments
In english:
Obesity prejudice is pervasive, especially in sports environments (Boudreault et al., 2022;
Greenleaf et al., 2012; Thedinga et al., 2021), and negatively impacts individuals who are
overweight or obese, including under -or unemployment, unequal treatment policies.,
discrimination in health care practices, and a higher risk of self-intentional harm and suicidality. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an evaluative conditioning (EC)-based poster, grounded in the newly emerging inferential framework, designed to reduce two common stereotypical beliefs: ‘Overweight people are lazy’ and ‘Overweight people lack motivation to exercise’ (RQ1); while also assessing its effect on the evaluation of individuals who are overweight (RQ2).
The researchers hypothesized that the inferential EC-based poster in the experimental
condition would significantly reduce the stereotypical beliefs (H1a), as well as the reduction would be significantly greater in the experimental condition compared to the control condition (H1b), in which a traditional EC-based poster was presented. The inferential EC-based poster included the pairing of individuals who are overweight (i.e., unconditioned stimulus) with t-shirts displaying ‘I love/heart-symbol fitness’ (i.e., conditioned stimuli), and a slogan to clarify the relation between the pairings. Both posters were displayed in the gym setting and the outcome variables were measured using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires.
The results were mixed, providing partial support for H1a but no support for H1b. This
may be attributed to methodological issues common for research in naturalistic settings. While the intervention did not consistently reduce all targeted stereotypical beliefs or consistently show stronger effects than the traditional EC-based poster, it did significantly reduce the belief that overweight people lack motivation to exercise, with a small to moderate effect size. Furthermore, the study may have found a significant positive effect of the inferential EC-based poster on the evaluation outcome. However, this potential effect should be further examined.
This study highlights the promise of inferential EC-based posters as a potential tool for
reducing obesity prejudice and stereotypical beliefs in everyday environments such as gyms. The findings underscore the importance of further research to replicate and refine inferential EC interventions, focusing on optimizing design variations and enhancing their impact in real-world contexts.
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