Obesity Discrimination in the Workplace: “You’re Hired!”

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to first identify whether obese people are discriminated against when hiring employees. Employees of workforces that vary due to the physical demand of their job, will rate hypothetical applicants on their suitability for employment using Likert-type responses to a range of questions. Applicants’ curriculum vitae will be manipulated by weight status and gender. Implicit and explicit attitudes towards obese people will also be examined using existing measures with strong psychometric properties as reported in extant research. Second, using focus group discussions with employees of either sedentary or physically active workforces, this study will explore why and in what ways obese people are discriminated against in the workplace.

Keywords

• obesity
• discrimination
• workplace
• implicit
• explicit