Using Educational Videos and Perspective-Taking to Communicate Gene-By-Environment Interaction Concepts about Eating Behavior: Effects on Empathy and Weight Stigma

Alison Jane Martingano, Sydney H. Telaak, Emma M. Schopp, Christopher Fortney, Alexander P. Dolwick, Susan Carnell, Sapna Batheja, Susan Persky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated whether education about gene-by-environment interaction (G × E) concepts could improve G × E knowledge and positively affect empathy and weight stigma. Design: We conducted a randomized trial using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. Setting: Online. Participants: Five hundred eighty-two American participants from the Prolific platform. Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to watch an educational or a control video. Participants then watched a set of vignette scenarios that depicted what it is like to have a predisposition toward obesogenic eating behaviors from either a first-person or third-person perspective. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants completed questionnaires measuring G × E knowledge, causal attributions, weight stigma, and empathy postintervention. Analysis: Two-by-two between-subjects ANOVAs and exploratory mediation analyses were conducted. Results: Participants who watched the educational video demonstrated greater G × E knowledge, reported higher empathy toward the characters in the vignette scenarios and held fewer stigmatizing attitudes (notably blame) toward individuals with higher weight. Exploratory mediation analyses indicated that the educational video led to these positive downstream effects by increasing the extent to which participants attributed genetic causes to eating behaviors. Conclusions and Implications: Education about G × E causes of eating behaviors can have beneficial downstream effects on attitudes toward people with higher weight.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)55-67
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Volume55
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2023

Keywords

  • eating behavior
  • empathy
  • gene-environment interaction
  • perspective-taking
  • weight stigma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nutrition and Dietetics
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)

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