ReviewFrontiers in nutrition2021
Weight Stigma and Social Media: Evidence and Public Health Solutions.
Review in Frontiers in nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social media-based interventions for adults with obesity and overweight: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Pooled it
- Becoming monstrous: Beauty norms, body image, and discursive limits on compassion in The Substance.Nutrition & dietetics : the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia · 2026Article
- Nonlinear association between body mass index, perceived discrimination, and psychological sub-health problems among adolescents: risks of undernutrition versus overnutrition.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Promoting resilience in women's weight stigma management (PRISM): A model for enhancing body image resilience.Journal of health psychology · 2026Review
- Obesity-Related Beliefs, Concerns, and Stigmatizing Perceptions Among Adults Living With Obesity.Obesity science & practice · 2026Article
- Fatphobia among adolescents: how future health professionals perceive weight-related violence and the influence of social media.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report.Pediatrics · 2026Review
- Knowledge and awareness of insulin resistance among social media users: A cross-sectional study in Jordan.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Article
- Weight self-stigma, weight bias internalization, and eating attitudes in relation to body appreciation.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cross-cultural validation of the Weight Stigma Exposure Inventory (WeSEI): secondary data analysis from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Türkiye, and Malaysia.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Effects of Screen-Based Leisure Time on 24 Subsequent Health and Wellbeing Outcomes: A Longitudinal Outcome-Wide Analysis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Weight loss following nutritional education session among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Analyzing Instagram Food and Nutrition Posts Through a Food Literacy Lens: Content Analysis of Instagram Posts.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- A School-Based Intervention Program to Reduce Weight Stigma in Adolescents.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Evaluating the quality of online fertility nutrition claims.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Assessment of Factors Associated with Misperception of Body Weight and Body Weight Modifications Intentions Among Adults from Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Body dissatisfaction, stigma and eating disorders: a scoping study on the role of compassion focused therapy.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Social and individual factors associated with eating disorders risk among adolescents in secondary schools of Sicily (south-Italy).Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Predictors and barriers for biosecurity uptake and risk understanding among Ontario horse owners.The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne · 2025Article
- Associations of suicidal behaviors with body weight and body weight perception in Chinese adolescents: 2007-2022.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Weight stigma is a pressing issue that affects individuals across the weight distribution. The role of social media in both alleviating and exacerbating weight bias has received growing attention. On one hand, biased algorithms on social media platforms may filter out posts from individuals in stigmatized groups and concentrate exposure to content that perpetuates problematic norms about weight. Individuals may also be more likely to engage in attacks due to increased anonymity and lack of substantive consequences online. The critical influence of social media in shaping beliefs may also lead to the internalization of weight stigma. However, social media could also be used as a positive agent of change. Movements such as Body Positivity, the Fatosphere, and Health at Every Size have helped counter negative stereotypes and provide more inclusive spaces. To support these efforts, governments should continue to explore legislative solutions to enact anti-weight discrimination policies, and platforms should invest in diverse content moderation teams with dedicated weight bias training while interrogating bias in existing algorithms. Public health practitioners and clinicians should leverage social media as a tool in weight management interventions and increase awareness of stigmatizing online content among their patients. Finally, researchers must explore how experiences of stigma differ across in-person and virtual settings and critically evaluate existing research methodologies and terminology. Addressing weight stigma on social media will take a concerted effort across an expansive set of stakeholders, but the benefits to population health are consequential and well-worth our collective attention.
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.