| Obesity stereotype refers to people’s classification according to body shape,forming a fixed and changeable cognitive tendency about obese people,it includes two levels:explicit and implicit.College students’ attitude towards obese people has a serious impact on college students’ interpersonal communication,how to reduce obesity stereotype is a very worthwhile topic.As an intervention in the field of social cognition,how effective is perspective taking in obesity stereotype?The research adopted questionnaire and experiment methods,which was divided into two parts:In the study 1,an experiment was conducted among 120 undergraduates using 2(perspective taking modes:imagining-self/imagining-others)×2(perspective taking materials:positive material/negative material)between subjects.Firstly,the Attitude Towards Obese Persons(ATOP)scale was used to measure the level of explicit obesity stereotype.Then the subjects were randomly divided into "imagine yourself-positive material","imagine yourself-negative material","imagine others-positive material" or "imagine others-negative material" groups to adopt perspective taking,after that,the ATOP scale was once again used to measure the level of explicit obesity stereotype.Study 2 was conducted among 129 undergraduates using 2(perspective taking modes:imagining-self/imagining-others)×2(perspective taking materials:positive material/negative material)between subjects.First of all,the implicit association test(IAT)was used to measure the level of implicit obesity stereotype,then the subjects were randomly divided into four groups to adopt perspective taking.After that,re-using the IAT to measure the level of implicit obesity stereotype.The results were as follows:(1)The average score of explicit stereotype was lower than neutral score,and the response time of compatible and incompatible tasks in implicit stereotype was significantly different.(2)The main effect of perspective taking modes was significant.When reading positive material,imagining yourself perspective taking would reduce obesity stereotypes more than imagining others perspective taking.When reading negative material,imagining yourself perspective taking would increase obesity stereotypes less than imagining others perspective taking.(3)The main effect of perspective taking materials was significant.Reading positive material could weaken stereotypes,while reading negative material could enhance stereotypes.(4)The interaction between perspective taking modes and perspective taking materials was significant.When reading positive material,it was more beneficial to reduce explicit and implicit obesity stereotypes by adopting imagining yourself perspective taking;When reading negative material,there was no significant difference between the two perspective taking modes on explicit obesity stereotype,imagining others perspective taking leaded to a stronger implicit obesity stereotype than imagining yourself perspective taking.The conclusions are as follows:(1)There is no explicit stereotype but implicit stereotype in college students.(2)Reading positive material can improve stereotypes,while reading negative material have the opposite effect.(3)When reading positive material,imagining yourself perspective taking is more effective in reducing obesity stereotypes;When reading negative material,the obesity stereotypes are not weakened by the two perspective taking modes. |
