The effect of GLP-1 receptor agonist use on negative evaluations of women with higher and lower body weight

Stacy M Post; Susan Persky

doi:10.1038/s41366-024-01516-4

The effect of GLP-1 receptor agonist use on negative evaluations of women with higher and lower body weight

Int J Obes (Lond). 2024 Apr 1. doi: 10.1038/s41366-024-01516-4. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Stacy M Post¹, Susan Persky²

Affiliations

¹ The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. spost5@gwu.edu.
² Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.

PMID: 38561488
DOI: 10.1038/s41366-024-01516-4

Abstract

Background: GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have dramatically altered obesity treatment. Media reports suggest that GLP-1 RAs users often report feeling judged for taking a "shortcut" to lose weight, which may be related to negative stereotypes toward people with larger bodies. Media reports also describe negative attitudes about lean people who take GLP-1 RAs to enhance their appearance. The present research used a 2 × 2 experimental design to test the effects of GLP-1 RA use and body size on attitudes and egocentric impressions.

Subjects/methods: A sample of 357 U.S. adults (M_age = 37.8, SD = 13) were randomly assigned to read about a woman, who either was lean or had obesity, and who lost 15% of her body weight either with diet/exercise or a GLP-1 RA. Participants answered questions measuring endorsement of negative weight-related stereotypes and egocentric attitudes toward the woman, as well as beliefs that she took a shortcut to lose weight and beliefs that biogenetic factors caused her baseline weight.

Results: Negative evaluations and egocentric impressions were stronger toward a woman who lost weight with a GLP-1 RA compared to diet/exercise. Losing weight with a GLP-1 RA led to stronger negative evaluations through higher weight loss shortcut beliefs irrespective of body size. Losing weight with a GLP-1 RA also led to higher egocentric impressions through higher shortcut beliefs, and this effect was stronger for a lean woman. Finally, losing weight with a GLP-1 RA led to more negative evaluations through stronger endorsement of biogenetic causal beliefs for a lean woman only.

Conclusions: This timely study provides evidence that people with larger and smaller bodies alike are at-risk for being judged for using GLP-1 RAs due to beliefs that these medications are a shortcut. Findings also demonstrate novel reactions related to egotism when weight loss is achieved with pharmacological interventions. PRE-REGISTRATION AND DATA: osf.io/xme4w.