Clinical trial NCT02745405: Implications of Wearing a Fat Suit
Official title: Implications of Wearing a Fat Suit for Eating, Physiological Stress, and Psychological Well-Being
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Feeding Behaviors
Keywords: Weight Stigma
Cortisol Reactivity
Eating Behavior
Lead sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-04-20
Enrollment: 109
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: This study examined how wearing a fat suit might lead individuals to experience the negative effects of weight based stigmatization, including psychological, behavioral, and physiological consequences. It also aimed to test using the fat suit as a possible intervention tactic to reduce weight stigma.

Detailed description: The goal of this study was to understand how embodying a stigmatized domain might elicit the same consequences investigators see in victims of weight stigma. Participants were randomly assigned to either manipulate their weight through wearing a fat suit prosthesis or to a control condition where they wore the same clothing that was on the fat suit but in their own size. Outcome variables were cortisol reactivity, psychological well-being, and food and drink consumption. Additionally, this study tested whether wearing the fat suit might serve as an effective weight stigma reduction effort.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Participants had to be registered in the UCLA Department of Psychology Subject Pool.

Exclusion Criteria:

* No specific exclusion criteria.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Eating behavior measured via grams of food consumed
timeFrame: ~10-minutes post-manipulation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Cortisol reactivity
timeFrame: ~20 minutes post-manipulation
measure: Antifat Attitudes measured via electronic questionnaire
timeFrame: ~30 minutes after post-manipulation
measure: Psychological Well-Being measured via electronic questionnaires
timeFrame: ~15 minutes post-manipulation
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles
name: A. Janet Tomiyama, Ph.D
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Crandall CS. Prejudice against fat people: ideology and self-interest. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1994 May;66(5):882-94. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.66.5.882.
citation: Baker F, Denniston M, Zabora J, Polland A, Dudley WN. A POMS short form for cancer patients: psychometric and structural evaluation. Psychooncology. 2002 Jul-Aug;11(4):273-81. doi: 10.1002/pon.564.
citation: Zadro L, Williams KD, Richardson R. How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(4): 560-567, 2004.
citation: Incollingo Rodriguez AC, Heldreth CM, Tomiyama AJ. Putting on weight stigma: A randomized study of the effects of wearing a fat suit on eating, well-being, and cortisol. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Sep;24(9):1892-8. doi: 10.1002/oby.21575. Epub 2016 Jul 28.