1 - (SYM 71) Weight Stereotypes Impact Eating Disorder Recognition in the General Population

Eating disorders (EDs) often go unrecognized among the general population (Sala et al., 2013; Blackstone et al., 2020). Given that there are weight stereotypes associated with EDs and that stereotypes impact ED recognition (Gordon et al., 2002; Sim et al., 2013), weight stereotypes may play a salient role in ED recognition. We investigated weight stereotypes in the recognition and referral of eating disorders among laypeople by assessing if recognition, treatment referral, perceived acceptability, perceived distress, and perceived prevalence of an ED differ depending on the weight of the subject in the vignette. Participants (n = 180) read three different vignettes describing three females with different EDs [anorexia nervosa/atypical anorexia nervosa (AN/AAN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED)] and were randomized to three different experimental conditions concerning an individual with a different weight (overweight, normal weight, and underweight). Across EDs, participants were more likely to recognize a problem (p = 0.02), refer for treatment (p  = 0.04), and rate a higher perceived level of distress (p < 0.001) in the vignettes of overweight individuals than in the vignettes of normal weight individuals. For BED, a larger proportion of participants in the overweight condition classified the issue described in the vignette as a form of eating pathology compared to the normal weight condition (p = 0.04). These results highlight several weight stereotypes that exist in the recognition and treatment referral of EDs. Future ED education and awareness programs should emphasize that EDs can occur in any individual, regardless of their weight.