“Yeah but …”: shifting our mindset around body weight in organizational research

Purpose This manuscript aims to expose a modern inner dialog between antifat beliefs and fat-inclusive beliefs, seeded by literature that sometimes supports the vagaries of excess body weight and sometimes points to other causes and neutral consequences of excess body weight. It shows how we, as researchers, “hear” this dialog in our own minds as we attempt to be weight-inclusive in our research on body weight in the workplace. Findings By being transparent in revealing our inner dialog about excess body weight’s harm – and lack thereof – we point to how to overcome some prejudicial beliefs about body weight that have long been entrained by Western culture. Research limitations/implications Showing that there are (at least) two parallel arguments about fatness – and concluding with a reframe to reconcile the two streams – will help researchers approach weight at work research with more awareness and sensitivity. Further, allowing other researchers to view our inner dialog provides an exemplar about how openness and conversation about how our own biases can come to inform our research and the concrete steps we must take to avoid this. Originality/value It is rare for research on weight to provide two viewpoints: that fatness can be aversive but also that fatness cannot lead to all the maladies we typically associate with it.