Stigmatizing Images in Obesity Health Campaign Messages and Healthy Behavioral Intentions

Abstract

Background Antiobesity campaigns blaming individual behaviors for obesity have sparked concern that an emphasis on individual behavior may lead to stigmatization of overweight or obese people. Past studies have shown that perpetuating stigma is not effective for influencing behavior. Purpose This study examined whether stigmatizing or nonstigmatizing images and text in antiobesity advertisements led to differences in health-related behavioral intentions. Method Participants in this experiment were 161 American adults. Measures included self-reported body mass index, weight satisfaction, antifat attitudes, and intention to increase healthy behaviors. Results Images in particular prompted intention to increase healthy behavior, but only among participants who were not overweight or obese. Conclusion Images and text emphasizing individual responsibility for obesity may influence behavioral intention among those who are not overweight, but they do not seem to be effective at altering behavioral intentions among overweight people, the target audience for many antiobesity messages. Images in antiobesity messages intended to alter behavior are influential and should be selected carefully.

Too little, too slowly: international perspectives on childhood obesity

“…Finally, in order to prevent stigmatising overweight children, careful testing and framing of obesity messages is important. 27…”

Effectively Communicating About HIV and Other Health Disparities: Findings From a Literature Review and Future Directions

“…Public health messages often use visual images to capture attention, reflect the priority audience, and increase perceptions of the message's relevance. However, visual images can prime stereotypes about race, gender, or other group identities (Guttman and Salmon, 2004;Coleman and Hatley Major, 2014;Young et al, 2016). Examples include portraying blacks as athletes and women as mothers.…”

“…Consequently, the use of images to support frames and the potential for images to prime stereotypes or to promote stigmatization should be carefully scrutinized (Coleman and Hatley Major, 2014). One study that provides support for this conclusion showed participants messages with stigmatizing images of overweight people or non-stigmatizing images and text that emphasized individual or social determinants of obesity (Young et al, 2016). The results revealed a stronger effect of images compared to text.…”

“…A well-recognized unintended consequence of health communication messages is the boomerang effect, which refers to health messages having an effect opposite of the intended effect (Cho and Salmon, 2007). For example, obesity-related messages perceived as stigmatizing have been found to result in increased calorie consumption and decreased motivation to lose weight (Schvey et al, 2011;Puhl et al, 2013;Major et al, 2014;Young et al, 2016).…”

Potenzielle Stigmatisierung von Menschen mit Übergewicht durch Gesundheits-Apps aus dem Formenkreis ‚Adipositas‘

“…Das Angebot an Apps in sämtlichen App Stores ist gegeben: Apples App Store, Googles Playstore, der Amazon Appstore sowie Windows und Blackberry enthielten 2017 zusammen ungefähr 29000 Apps zu den Themen ‚körperliche Bewegung', ‚Ernährung' und ‚Körpergewicht' [4]. Da Menschen mit Adipositas täglich mit Voreingenommenheit und Vorurteilen konfrontiert werden, die auf dem verbreiteten gesellschaftlichen Bild dieser Erkrankung beruhen [5][6][7][8], ist es nicht abwegig anzunehmen, dass sich dieses falsche Verständnis auch in der Aufbereitung von Apps widerspiegelt.…”