Obesity in Society: The Importance of Perception

In the current study, I examined the role of positive and negative media images of obese individuals on attitudes and physiological responding in relation to an actual discrimination incident. Various surveys were administered and Body Mass Index (BMI), salivary Alpha Amylase (sAA), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) or Skin Conductance (SC) were measured. Participants read a vignette in which an obese individual was discriminated against and further questions were administered to assess attributional blame. My primary hypothesis in this study was that there would be a decrease in stigma due to positive priming, specifically stigma directed at the obese population. Results indicated that only the self-report measure of Need to Belong showed differences among the priming groups as individuals in the positive group reported higher need to belong prior to study manipulation. There were no significant differences between the priming groups in relation to sex for sAA. However, there was a time x priming interaction in which sAA increased post-stressor, regardless of group. Individuals in the negative priming group exhibited the highest overall response post-stressor, indicating more reactivity to the stressor. With regard to Skin Conductance, all participants displayed a decrease in arousal post stressor. More importantly, participants in the negative priming group were less aroused than their counterparts, as measured by SC change scores. There was also a time x priming x sex 3-way interaction on SC. Finally, there were no observable differences between groups on their written responses to the vignette. Collectively, these findings suggest that priming affects physiological responding to obesity stigmatization and further validates the use of sAA and SC as markers of SNS activation in response to psychosocial stress.