
Weight stigma, a negative attitude toward persons who are overweight, can lead to emotional detriment (increased vulnerability to depression and anxiety, decreased self-esteem) and discriminatory practices (denial of employment, lower wages, refusal of job promotion or college admission, healthcare deprivation), which have increased dramatically in the United States over the past decade. We report two experiments that implicate nostalgia as a resource or strategy for weight stigma reduction. We hypothesized and found that nostalgia about an encounter with a person who is overweight improves attitudes toward the group “overweight.” Undergraduates who recalled a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) interaction with an overweight person subsequently showed more positive outgroup attitudes. The effect of nostalgia on outgroup attitudes was mediated by greater inclusion of the outgroup in the self and increased outgroup trust (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as reduced intergroup anxiety and greater perceptions of a common ingroup identity (Experiment 2). The findings have interventional potential.
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3207, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312, name=Social Psychology, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312; name=Sociology and Political Science, 150, name=Sociology and Political Science, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3207; name=Social Psychology
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3207, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312, name=Social Psychology, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312; name=Sociology and Political Science, 150, name=Sociology and Political Science, /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3207; name=Social Psychology
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| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
