The Impact of Workplace Health Promotion Programs Emphasizing Individual Responsibility on Weight Stigma and Discrimination.

Susanne Täuber,Stuart W Flint,Laetitia B Mulder

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02206

Susanne Täuber, Stuart W Flint + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02206

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Abstract

Over time, there has been a steady increase of workplace health promotion programs that aim to promote employees' health and fitness. Previous research has focused on such program's effectiveness, cost-savings, and barriers to engaging in workplace health promotion. The present research focuses on a downside of workplace health promotion programs that to date has not been examined before, namely the possibility that they, due to a focus on individual responsibility for one's health, inadvertently facilitate stigmatization and discrimination of people with overweight in the workplace. Study 1 shows that the presence of workplace health promotion programs is associated with increased attributions of weight controllability. Study 2 experimentally demonstrates that workplace health promotion programs emphasizing individual rather than organizational responsibility elicit weight stigma. Study 3, which was pre-registered, showed that workplace health promotion programs emphasizing individual responsibility induced weight-based discrimination in the context of promotion decisions in the workplace. Moreover, focusing on people with obesity who frequently experience weight stigma and discrimination, Study 3 showed that workplace health promotion programs highlighting individual responsibility induced employees with obesity to feel individually responsible for their health, but at the same time made them perceive weight as less controllable. Together, our research identifies workplace health promotion programs as potent catalysts of weight stigma and weight-based discrimination, especially when they emphasize individual responsibility for health outcomes. As such, we offer valuable insights for organizations who aim to design and implement workplace health promotion programs in an inclusive, non-discriminatory way that benefits all employees.

Highlights

Decades ago, employees worked in environments where smoking was normal and yoga or going for a run during office hours was out of the question
These results suggest that the presence of a workplace health promotion programs (WHPP) does not necessarily contribute to weight stigma; when WHPP emphasize individual responsibility this does contribute to weight stigma
Hypotheses Testing: Weight Bias Internalization Hypotheses 5a and 5b stated that the WHPP emphasizing individual responsibility would increase weight bias internalization, and that this effect would be more pronounced for people with a high BMI

Summary

Introduction

Employees worked in environments where smoking was normal and yoga or going for a run during office hours was out of the question. Weight Stigma in Workplace Health their employees’ health and lifestyle gained support and is largely considered appropriate (Goetzel et al, 2014). This is partly due to the aging workforce, which emphasizes the necessity of sustainable employment and partly due to improved insights into the contribution of lifestyle to health outcomes. Many WHPP focus on supporting employees to “manage their weight” in response to the current agenda relating to obesity (Public health England, 2018). We propose and test that such framing of responsibility within WHPP forms a potent foundation for weight stigma and discrimination in the workplace. The current investigation tests the influence of both the presence and focus (individual vs. organizational responsibility) of WHPP on weight stigma and discrimination

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