Impacts of Sugar Warnings on Weight Bias

Explicit weight bias will be measured by survey through seven items. Items will present participants with pairs of antonyms and ask that they select the box between antonyms that they feel best describes their feelings and beliefs about people with obesity: (1) lazy - hard-working, (2) no will power - has will power, (3) good self - control - poor self-control, (4) active - inactive, (5) self-indulgent - self-sacrificing, (6) dislikes food - likes food, (7) undereats - overeats.

Response options, which will be presented as 5 boxes between antonyms, will be coded in a categorical 1-5 range, where higher scores represent higher endorsement of a stereotype that contributes to weight bias. Each participant's responses to each item will then be averaged across the seven items to obtain their final score on the outcome in a 1-5 range, where higher scores represent higher explicit weight bias.

Body weight attributional judgements will be measured by survey through two items. Items will ask participants how much they agree with two statements: (1) People with obesity are responsible for their weight; (2) People with obesity are to blame for their weight.

Response options will be on a 5-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with higher scores representing higher agreement. Each participant's responses to each item will be averaged to obtain their final score on the outcome in a 1-5 range, where higher scores represent higher attribution of personal responsibility for body weight.