The effect of an ultra-brief intervention to challenge fat talk: examination of fat talk engagement, body dissatisfaction, and negative affect

Objective Conversations that denigrate body size and weight have become increasingly prevalent among young women, however, the factors contributing to participation in such ‘fat-talk’ are not yet fully understood. The present study sought to investigate how women respond to traditional fat-talk compared to dialogue inspired by feminist theory that actively challenges fat talk. This study incorporated experimental vignettes to facilitate this comparison.Method A sample of 92 undergraduate female students from the United Arab Emirates completed questionnaires to determine their baseline levels of body dissatisfaction, the extent of their engagement in fat-talk and their mood. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of two conditions, either exposure to a vignette that displayed engagement in fat talk or to one that illustrated a dialogue in which fat talk was challenged by using feminist-inspired statements.Results Post-exposure assessments measured engagement in fat-talk, negative affect, and the social likeability of the character, and revealed that post-exposure engagement in fat-talk was not significantly different between the two conditions, however, the social likeability of the character in the challenge vignette was reported to be higher. Baseline levels of fat-talk were found to be a significant predictor for engagement in fat-talk post-exposure.Conclusions These findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of how women perceive and engage in fat-talk, as well as the factors that may influence such engagement.