Objectives: Where previous work has suggested that over-weight individuals may be subject to negative social judgments, a finding also seen in judgments applied to healthcare professionals (HCPs), this study investigated whether these findings extend to judgments made about dental practitioners.
Methods: A photo of a normal weight male and one of a normal weight female dentist were digitally modified to reliably show them as overweight, giving a total of 4 conditions. In a single-blind quasi-randomised controlled study of 302 undergraduate and postgraduate student participants used a 5 point Likert scale to appraise a single, gender-matched colour photograph as to whether they thought the dentist depicted was competent, professional, caring, had patients' best interests at heart, and was a good dentist. They further rated their future intentions to follow behavioural advice (reduce snacking and take-up flossing) given by the depicted dentist.
Results: The data were analysed using independent sample t-tests. There were no differences in outcomes as a function of the weight status of the depicted dentist in any of the variables explored with the exception of the normal-weight images being rated as more caring than the overweight ones (p<.04).
Conclusions: Images of overweight dentists do not receive lower social judgement ratings than images of normal-weight dentists. Previous research in medicine reporting adverse social judgments made of over-weight HCPs does not apply to dental practitioners. Future research should focus on factors that may explain these findings.
Clinical significance: Dentists appear to be protected from the adverse effect of overweight on social judgments of their personal characteristics and on their health-promoting advice.
Keywords: Obesity; Overweight; Professionalism; Psychology; Social Judgments.
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