Does Obesity Stigma Depend on Where You Live?
People living in areas where obesity is more common may experience less stigma, which could help reduce some of the social and health consequences of being overweight.
If people with obesity feel less conspicuous in those regions — the Midwest, South, and East Coast, for example — they may face fewer social, economic and medical issues, according to recent research published in the journal Psychological Science. This suggests that some negative effects of obesity are caused by social attitudes and can be reduced, the researchers said.
Those negative consequences “aren’t as inevitable as often thought,” said lead author Jana Berkessel, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Mannheim in Germany. “One way to change society’s views of obesity may be through a more true-to-life representation of different body sizes in the media.”
Excerpted from WebMD
