ArticlePsychological science2017
Does Knowing Hurt? Perceiving Oneself as Overweight Predicts Future Physical Health and Well-Being.
Article in Psychological science, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Internalised weight stigma as a mediator of the relationship between experienced/perceived weight stigma and biopsychosocial outcomes: a systematic review.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review of the relationship between weight status perceptions and weight loss attempts, strategies, behaviours and outcomes.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2018Pooled it
- Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations Between Weight Perception and Cardiometabolic Health Among Adolescents Followed Into Emerging Adulthood.Preventing chronic disease · 2026Article
- Disentangling consequences of self-perceived weight from excess adiposity in metabolically healthy overweight/obesity.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- Contributions of subjective status to eating behaviors, obesity, and metabolic health across development.Appetite · 2025Review
- Sense of Purpose in Life and Beliefs and Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2023Article
- "I was bullied for being fat in every situation, in every outfit, at every celebration": A qualitative exploratory study on experiences of weight-based oppression in Qatar.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The mediating effect of perceiving close relatives as obese on obesity and weight control behavior score among adults: An exploratory cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Association of body image dissatisfaction, behavioral responses for healthy eating, and cardiovascular health in African-American women with overweight or obesity: A preliminary study.American journal of preventive cardiology · 2021Article
- Gender differences in factors associated with body weight misperception.Public health nutrition · 2021Article
- Self-perception of overweight and obesity: A review of mental and physical health outcomes.Obesity science & practice · 2020Review
- Perceived Weight Discrimination Mediates the Prospective Association Between Obesity and Physiological Dysregulation: Evidence From a Population-Based Cohort.Psychological science · 2019Observational
- Does dissatisfaction with, or accurate perception of overweight status help people reduce weight? Longitudinal study of Australian adults.BMC public health · 2019Article
- The relationship between intuitive eating and body image is moderated by measured body mass index.Eating behaviors · 2019Article
- How and why weight stigma drives the obesity 'epidemic' and harms health.BMC medicine · 2018Article
- Weight Perception, Weight Stigma Concerns, and Overeating.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2018Article
- The Cardiometabolic Burden of Self-Perceived Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis of a Nationally Representative Sample of Korean Adults.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Article
- Parental perception of child weight and inflammation: Perceived overweight is associated with higher child c-reactive protein.Biological psychology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Identifying oneself as being overweight may be associated with adverse health outcomes, yet prospective tests of this possibility are lacking. Over 7 years, we examined associations between perceptions of being overweight and subsequent health in a sample of 3,582 U.S. adults. Perceiving oneself as being overweight predicted longitudinal declines in subjective health ( d = -0.22, p < .001), increases in depressive symptoms ( d = 0.09, p < .05), and raised levels of physiological dysregulation ( d = 0.24, p < .001), as gauged by clinical indicators of cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic functioning. These associations remained after controlling for a range of potential confounders and were observed irrespective of whether perceptions of being overweight were accurate or inaccurate. This research highlights the possibility that identifying oneself as overweight may act independently of body mass index to contribute to unhealthy profiles of physiological functioning and impaired health over time. These findings underscore the importance of evaluating whether weight-feedback interventions may have unforeseen adverse consequences.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.