Attributions for obesity, emotions, and policy preferences

What is it about?

Our findings suggest that sympathy and lack of anger toward obese people are strongly determined by a genetic attribution for obesity. Moreover, sympathy and the genetic attribution are significant predictors of opposition to hiring policies that discriminate against obese people. In a second study, chief among several causal attributions for obesity—lack of will power, lack of exercise, marketing of foods, and genetics—we discovered biological attribution functions as the key predictor of perceptions that obese people are frequent targets of discrimination.

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Why is it important?

We suggest governments and the food industry should be more attuned to the underlying beliefs of the public about the causes of obesity when formulating programs and policies to address the issue.

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