Weight Bias as a Social Justice Issue in an Unjust World
Date
2019-08-26
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Weight bias is a widespread and persistent form of stigma. It negatively impacts individuals with large bodies across the lifespan and in multiple social contexts. The current research addresses two important gaps in weight bias literature: (1) the limited understanding of the nature of weigh bias, and (2) the limited direct connection of weight bias literature to social justice. This research connects weight bias literature to diverse approaches to social justice (distributive justice, procedural justice, and ecological justice) that provide the opportunity to more strongly situate weight bias as a social justice issue. Connecting this to counselling psychology, the current research also considers the implications of weight bias as a social justice issue for the education and practice of counselling psychologists. To contribute to the limited understanding of the nature of weight bias, this research extends previous correlational research on the relationships between the belief in a just world and weight bias. Utilizing justice motive theory, the impact of the justice motive on perceptions of individuals with large bodies, both within and outside of counselling, are considered. This consideration is followed by three experimental investigations of the impact of the justice motive on perceptions and evaluations of individuals with large bodies. The current research provides directions for both furthering our understanding of the nature of weight bias through consideration of the justice motive as well as for furthering the connection between weight bias and conversations related to social justice, with the goal of working towards equality for individuals of all body sizes.
Description
The manuscript included in Chapter 3 is now published. The full citation for this manuscript is:
Nutter, S., Russell-Mayhew, S., Ellard, J. H., & Arthur, N. (2020). Reducing unintended harm: Addressing weight bias as a social justice issue in counselling through justice motive theory. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 51(2), 106-114 https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000279
Keywords
weight bias, social justice, justice motive, counselling psychology
Citation
Nutter, S. (2019). Weight Bias as a Social Justice Issue in an Unjust World (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.