The ironic effects of weight stigma

• We examine effects of exposure to weight stigmatizing (vs. control) new messages.
• Weight stigma led overweight but not nonoverweight women to consume more calories.
• Weight stigma reduced perceived dietary control among overweight women.
• Weight stigma increased perceived dietary control among nonoverweight women.
• Self-perceived overweight was more important predictor than actual body mass index.

America's war on obesity has intensified stigmatization of overweight and obese individuals. This experiment tested the prediction that exposure to weight-stigmatizing messages threatens the social identity of individuals who perceive themselves as overweight, depleting executive resources necessary for exercising self-control when presented with high calorie food. Women were randomly assigned to read a news article about stigma faced by overweight individuals in the job market or a control article. Exposure to weight-stigmatizing news articles caused self-perceived overweight women, but not women who did not perceive themselves as overweight, to consume more calories and feel less capable of controlling their eating than exposure to non-stigmatizing articles. Weight-stigmatizing articles also increased concerns about being a target of stigma among both self-perceived overweight and non-overweight women. Findings suggest that social messages targeted at combating obesity may have paradoxical and undesired effects.