title: The influence of social norms upon behavioral expressions of implicit and explicit weight-related stigma in an interactive game.
abstract: This research explored the roles of social influence and stigma-related attitudes in how people behaved toward an overweight female in an interactive computer game. Photographs were used to manipulate whether one of the players in the game was overweight or average weight. We found that both explicit and implicit anti-fat attitudes influenced interactions with an overweight player, but only when other players ostracized the overweight player, not when they included her. Under conditions of ostracism, explicit attitudes were better predictors of more controllable behaviors, while implicit attitudes were better predictors of more automatic behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois 61790-4620, USA. pryor@ilstu.edu
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Pryor
authors.forename: Glenn D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Reeder
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Wesselmann
authors.forename: Kipling D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wirth
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D057545:Social Stigma; D018910:Video Games; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: implicit attitudes; ostracism; social interaction; weight-related stigma