The Stigma of Being Overweight

Abstract

In a job context, we investigated whether controllability of a stigma influences the self-protective effects of attributions to discrimination. Eighty overweight females read a vignette and imagined being rejected for a job because of their (1) personal abilities, (2) sex, (3) being overweight due to a disease, or (4) being overweight from personal causes. Results showed that when the rejection was gender-based, participants blamed themselves less and had higher performance self-esteem than when it was due to personal abilities. Importantly, when being overweight had a personal background – and was hence controllable – women blamed themselves more for the rejection and reported lower performance self-esteem than did participants in the overweight condition with a disease background. The results support the dependency of self-protective effects of discrimination attributions on controllability.