Effects of Self-Compassion Writing Interventions on Implicit Weight Bias
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Madigan, James Kent
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Abstract
Weight bias in society is no new issue. Even as the population's weight has increased, prejudice continues to thrive. Research on explicit bias interventions has shown changes in bias. Interventions might be helpful. Implicit bias interventions, however, are scarce. One potentially useful type of intervention might be interventions aimed at increasing self-compassion. Self-compassion writing exercises have been seen to shift individuals' explicit prejudices about higher weight bodies, leading to more acceptance of individuals' own bodies as well as others’.
In this study, a two-week intervention was conducted where eight participants completed self-compassion writing exercises each day. To analyze if there was an impact a pre and post survey was given which included an Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT) on weight (Appendix A), the Fat Attitudes Assessment Toolkit (FAAT) (Appendix C), Attitudes Towards Obese Persons Scale Higher Weight version (ATOPS-HW) (Appendix D), Body Compassion Scale (BCS) (Appendix E), and Self Compassion Scale Short Form (SCS-SF) (Appendix F). Throughout the two weeks, participants were prompted with a daily survey to report their stress levels, which exercise they completed, and their emotional states at different points during the exercise.
Data was analyzed using paired t-tests and linear regressions. There was no significant difference between the pre and post IAT results, indicating that self-compassion writing exercises did not impact implicit bias (p = 0.547). The ATOPS-HW scores showed a decrease in negative attitudes towards higher weight individuals after the intervention (p = 0.008). This is in line with previous research suggesting self-compassion exercises help decrease explicit bias. Due to the small sample size more research must be done to confirm these findings.
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Undergraduate Research Option Thesis