Self‐protection and correction for automatically activated weight bias: Revisiting the applicability of the MODE model

Abstract

AbstractPrevious research has attempted to assess the applicability of the motivation and opportunity as determinants (MODE) of the attitude‐behavior relations model to examine the situations in which automatically activated attitudes predict anti‐fat social judgments. These studies have produced mixed findings, but also had statistical and methodological limitations‐ leaving the applicability of the MODE model to weight bias unclear. Using a sample of ninety‐three undergraduate university students, the current study sought to address limitations of prior research and assess the viability of the MODE model by uniquely conceptualizing motivation as stemming from a need to protect against the negative consequences of a stigmatized social identity. Overall, it was found that participant body mass index (BMI) interacted with automatically activated attitudes to significantly predict perceptions of higher‐weight people’s lack of willpower. Specifically, among participants lower in BMI, stronger negative automatically activated attitudes toward higher‐weight individuals directly predicted greater perceptions of higher weight people’s lack of willpower. Conversely, among participants higher in BMI, automatically activated attitudes did not predict perceptions of higher‐weight people’s lack of willpower. Findings suggest that among higher BMI individuals, a self‐protective motive to avoid the negative consequences of a stigmatized social identity may motivate individuals to correct for the otherwise direct influence of automatically activated attitudes on more controlled, self‐reported anti‐fat judgments. The current study provides initial empirical support for the applicability of the MODE model to understanding situations in which automatically activated attitudes may (or may not) directly predict anti‐fat social judgments.