Why is it so hard to change? The role of self‐integrity threat and affirmation in weight loss

Abstract

People are frequently dissatisfied with their body weight. Messages alleging that lower weight is esthetically preferable, healthier, and achievable likely trigger chronic self‐integrity threat, the sense that one's personal adequacy is in doubt. We examined whether self‐integrity threat, which creates stress and pressure to restore self‐integrity, contributes to the challenges of weight and behavior change. Weight‐dissatisfied women completed in‐lab tasks including a values affirmation manipulation and two‐month follow‐up. Affirmed women lost weight relative to controls, replicating previous research. Effects were primarily among those with higher initial body masses. Affirmed higher‐weighted women also ate more healthful foods compared to unhealthful foods in self‐reports and observation. Affirmed participants reported increased exercise, and an exploratory measure showed that their cortisol awakening responses synchronized with their coping needs, suggesting more adaptive physiological function. Results suggest that self‐integrity threat is an under‐recognized barrier to change, and reducing it can support healthy changes.

A Social-Belonging Intervention Benefits Higher Weight Students’ Weight Stability and Academic Achievement

“…These results go beyond work showing that values affirmation promotes weight stability (i.e., Logel & Cohen, 2012;Logel et al, 2018Logel et al, , 2019. There, a 15-min writing task bolstered global self-integrity, presumably buffering weightdissatisfied participants against weight-related self-integrity threats in a lab context including multiple weight-relevant activities.…”

“…Weight-dissatisfied college women who were asked to write about identify-relevant core values lost 3.41 lbs (1.55 kg) approximately 2 months later, whereas controls had gained 2.76 lbs (1.25 kg; Logel & Cohen, 2012). Effects were subsequently replicated, primarily among higher weight women (Logel et al, 2018). More than 2 years later, affirmed higher weight women from the two studies maintained weight stability, whereas controls gained some weight (Logel et al, 2019).…”

Affirmation on the go: A proof‐of‐concept for text message delivery of values affirmation in education

“…(For affirmed students, the difference score was significantly positive; M = .33, SD = .44, one‐sample t = 3.32, p = .004). Third, the few affirmation studies to include no‐task control conditions have not observed negative effects of the standard control condition used here (see Cohen et al., 2006; Logel et al., 2019).…”

“The People Who Leave Here Are Not the People Who Arrived.”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Therapeutic Process and Identity Transition in the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway

“…This “worthiness” is linked to self-integrity, an individual’s sense of being “good enough”—competent enough to control important life outcomes (Steele, 1988). Threats to self-integrity, where an experience threatens one’s personal adequacy, are barriers to change for many behaviors (see e.g., Logel et al, 2019). It was clear that this was a ubiquitous experience for this sample and that going through this process was a necessary step in self-change.…”