Eastern Alum Rachel Scrivano of Rocky Hill Publishes Research on Obesity Discrimination

2018 Feb 12

Eastern alum Rachel Scrivano '17 of Rocky Hill recently published her research titled "The Impact of Applicants' Weight and Education About Obesity on Applicant Ratings" in the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, a competitive academic journal that publishes undergraduate, graduate and faculty research.

Scrivano worked alongside Eastern Professor of Psychology Jenna Scisco, who has an extensive background in researching obesity, eating behavior and nutrition, as well as Gary Giumetti, professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University.

Scrivano graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in Spring 2017. She is currently a master's student at the College of William and Mary.

Obese women are commonly discriminated against based on their appearance, particularly during the hiring process. One-third of Americans are obese, meaning nearly 78 million adults and 13 million children deal with the health effects of obesity every day. Obesity can impact not only an individual's health, but also their ability to get a job.

Scrivano wanted to expand upon prior research by introducing education interventions designed to reduce obesity bias by providing brief education about uncontrollable causes of obesity. In order to observe this potential effect, 166 participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions where they viewed a videotaped lecture by either an obese or non-obese candidate whose lecture focused on the controllable causes of obesity, uncontrollable causes of obesity, or a control presentation on sleep and memory. A control group is a group of participants who do not receive the experimental treatment, or in this case, experimental education.

Upon completion of the education portion of the experiment, participants completed measures of implicit obesity bias, explicit beliefs about the controllability of obesity, hiring decisions, and impressions of the candidate.

"Findings indicated that the obese job candidate was rated more favorably on professor roles such as approachability and responsiveness and as having a greater likelihood of accepting the job offer than the non-obese job candidate," said Scrivano. "These findings run counter to existing research, which has largely found that obese individuals are rated more negatively in a hiring context."

Additionally, participants who viewed the job talk focusing on obesity being under an individual's control through means such as diet and exercise, reported greater levels of explicit obesity bias than participants who viewed the job talk focusing on obesity being uncontrollable through means such as genetic makeup.

"These findings provide unique insight into how focusing education on controllable factors of obesity, such as diet and exercise, may exacerbate negative beliefs about obese individuals," said Scrivano.