Skip to main page content
Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(11):e48448.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048448. Epub 2012 Nov 7.

Implicit and explicit anti-fat bias among a large sample of medical doctors by BMI, race/ethnicity and gender

Janice A Sabin  1 , Maddalena Marini, Brian A Nosek
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Implicit and explicit anti-fat bias among a large sample of medical doctors by BMI, race/ethnicity and gender

Janice A Sabin et al. PLoS One. .
Free PMC article
Favorites

Abstract

Overweight patients report weight discrimination in health care settings and subsequent avoidance of routine preventive health care. The purpose of this study was to examine implicit and explicit attitudes about weight among a large group of medical doctors (MDs) to determine the pervasiveness of negative attitudes about weight among MDs. Test-takers voluntarily accessed a public Web site, known as Project Implicit®, and opted to complete the Weight Implicit Association Test (IAT) (N = 359,261). A sub-sample identified their highest level of education as MD (N = 2,284). Among the MDs, 55% were female, 78% reported their race as white, and 62% had a normal range BMI. This large sample of test-takers showed strong implicit anti-fat bias (Cohen's d = 1.0). MDs, on average, also showed strong implicit anti-fat bias (Cohen's d = 0.93). All test-takers and the MD sub-sample reported a strong preference for thin people rather than fat people or a strong explicit anti-fat bias. We conclude that strong implicit and explicit anti-fat bias is as pervasive among MDs as it is among the general public. An important area for future research is to investigate the association between providers' implicit and explicit attitudes about weight, patient reports of weight discrimination in health care, and quality of care delivered to overweight patients.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: This project was supported by Project Implicit, Inc. BN is an officer of Project Implicit, a non-profit organization that includes in its mission, “To develop and deliver methods for investigating and applying phenomena of implicit social cognition, including especially phenomena of implicit bias based on age, race, gender or other factors.”

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by 60 articles

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Kim J, Peterson KE, Scanlon KS, Fitzmaurice GM, Must A, et al. (2006) Trends in overweight from 1980 through 2001 among preschool-aged children enrolled in a health mainteinance organization. Obesity 14: 1107–1112. - PubMed
    1. Flores G (2010) Technical Report-Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Health and Health Care of Children. Pediatrics 125: e979–e1020. - PubMed
    1. van Gerwin M, Franc C, Rosman S, Le Vallant M, Pelletier-Fleury N (2008) Primary care physicians' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding childhood obesity: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews: 1–10.
    1. Jay M, Kalet A, Ark T, McMacken M, Messito MJ, et al. (2009) Physicians' attitudes about obesity and their associations with competency and specialty:A cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research 106: 1–11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Foster GB, Wadden TA, Makris AP, Davidson D, Sanderson RS, et al. (2003) Primary care physicians' attitudes about obesity and its treatment. Obesity Research 11: 1168–1177. - PubMed

Publication types

Grant support

This project was supported by Project Implicit, Inc. BN is an officer of Project Implicit, a non-profit organization that includes in its mission, “To develop and deliver methods for investigating and applying phenomena of implicit social cognition, including especially phenomena of implicit bias based on age, race, gender or other factors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Feedback