Reducing weight-based rejection: Identifying facilitators and barriers to positive social change using the social identity approach.

Abstract

The social identity approach provides an innovative theoretical framework to understand the systemic nature and determinants of weight stigma and discrimination. Integrating existing evidence, we discuss the need for social identity–informed interventions to support the health of people with higher weight and increase advocacy for equity among higher weight and advantaged groups. We outline how interventions might achieve these goals by challenging the extent to which weight-based group boundaries are perceived as permeable and the inequity experienced by people with higher weight is seen as legitimate and stable. We describe three beliefs about weight and health that present key targets for interventions, as they shape weight-based social identities and inform perceptions of the legitimacy of inequity. We provide concrete directions for future research to design and evaluate new interventions aiming to promote and protect health and equity for people with higher weight. Show more