Weighing the stigma of weight: An fMRI study of neural reactivity to the pain of obese individuals.

[cushing syndrome]

Explicit negative attitudes and blameful beliefs (e .g . poor diet , laziness ) towards obese individuals are well documented and are pervasive even among health professionals . Here we sought to determine whether obesity stigma is reflected in a fundamental feature of intersubjectivity namely the automatic neural resonance with others ' affective experiences . During fMRI , normal-weight female participants observed short clips depicting normal-weight (NW ) and obese (Ob ) models experiencing pain . Importantly , participants believed that half of the Ob were overweight due to a hormonal disorder (HormOb ) and ignored the cause of obesity of the remaining models (Unknown obese models ; UnkOb ). Analyses of hemodynamic responses showed reduced activity to the pain of Ob compared to that of NW in areas associated with pain processing and early visual processing . The comparison between the two Ob conditions revealed a further decrease of activity to HormOb 's pain compared to UnkOb 's (and NW ) pain in the right inferior frontal gyrus , an area associated with emotional resonance . Our study demonstrates that stigma for obese individuals can be observed at implicit levels , and that it is modulated by knowledge concerning the etiology of obesity , with the seemingly surprising result that obesity due to disease may result in greater stigmatization . Moreover , the perceived similarity with the models and the ambivalent emotion of pity may index biased brain responses to obese individuals ' pain . The study highlights a possibly important neural link between resonance with the pain of others and obesity stigma .