Vol. 16, Issue 1, Jul-Dec 2023

Page: 79-97

Investigating the Influence of Gender and Socioeconomic status on Causal Attributions regarding Obesity and Depression

Kamya Parekh, Rohan Pillai

Received Date:

Accepted Date:

Published Date:

Instances of obesity and depression and both rising the world over. The development, maintenance and effective treatment of these two disorders can be influenced by emotions of the person suffering from these disorders. How society attributes the blame/causation for these disorders therefore can influence the sufferer and influence the treatment. Therefore this study investigated how factors like gender and socioeconomic status of persons with obesity and depression influence subjective judgements and casations regarding the development of obesity and depression. Vignettes were used to create four conditions varying in terms of gender and socioeconomic status which were about a target person suffering from issues of obesity and depression. T tests and chi square tests were used to measure the differences in the subjective differences in the ratings. Results showed that ‘male’ and ‘affluent socioeconomic status’ conditions elicited a higher estimation of efforts to engage in physical exercise. Obesity was attributed to dispositional factors and gender and socioeconomic status had no significant influence on these estimates. Socioeconomic status did have an influence on the causation of depression. In all conditions a need to visit a mental health professional was indicated regardless of gender or socioeconomic status.

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