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.