Weight Bias
As the prevalence of obesity increases throughout much of the world, there is also a pervasive and strong societal culture of weight bias. Weight bias is defined as negative attitudes toward and beliefs about others because of their weight. Weight bias leads to the stigmatisation of obese individuals and as research shows, this, in turn, can have a serious negative impact on their social, economic, psychological, and physical health. Obesity carries with it one of the last forms of socially acceptable discrimination. Psychologically, the consequences of this discrimination for the recipients leads to a higher vulnerability for depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor body image and suicidal ideation. We have a culture that values thinness and perpetuates societal messages that obesity is characteristic of a defective person. This message propagates weight stigma, defined as the social rejection and devaluation that accrues to those who do not comply with social norms o...