Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Implicit and Explicit Biases toward Obesity: Perspectives of School of Education Students

Mary E Walter, Kelsey Ragan, Tracey N Sulak and Janet H Bagby

The current study investigated implicit and explicit biases toward obesity among a group of pre-service educators. Educators play a key role in helping children learn habits that contribute to a healthy lifestyle and lowered rate of obesity. Explicit biases, such as overt discrimination against obese children may be rare among educators, but implicit biases, such as not calling on obese children in class, may be more prevalent. More importantly, implicit biases may not be recognized or understood among educators. A total of 102 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a university level school of education were administered the Implicit Attitudes Test, the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire and the Attitudes towards Obese Persons Scale. The participants did not demonstrate an explicit bias against obesity but did appear to have an implicit bias toward individuals with obesity.