The influence of plaintiff's body weight on judgments of responsibility: the role of weight bias

Judges' experiences with mitigating jurors' implicit biases

Implicit bias can influence jury decision-making. Training judges about implicit bias is a fairly new endeavor, and not all judges are necessarily aware of these biases. Even when judges are aware that biases exist, they might not know whether or not they should alert jurors to such biases or how to appropriately do so. It is currently unknown how many judges alert jurors to implicit bias (e.g. via instructions or juror orientation). The purpose of this study is to discuss judges' beliefs and practices regarding implicit bias in the courtroom. The findings indicate that the majority of judges (72%) do not alert jurors to implicit bias. Many judges were found to have a lack of awareness or understanding about implicit bias, but many now feel that alerting jurors about bias is important and would like to do so in the future.

Weight discrimination and unhealthy eating-related behaviors

Individuals with obesity often experience unfair treatment because of their body weight. Such experiences are associated with binge eating, but less is known about its association with other eating-related behaviors and whether these relations are specific to discrimination based on weight or extend to other attributions for discrimination. The present research uses a large national sample (N = 5129) to examine whether weight discrimination is associated with diet and meal rhythmicity, in addition to overeating, and whether these associations generalize to nine other attributions for discrimination. We found that in addition to overeating, weight discrimination was associated with more frequent consumption of convenience foods and less regular meal timing. These associations were generally similar across sex, age, and race. Discrimination based on ancestry, gender, age, religion, and physical disability were also associated with overeating, which suggests that overeating may be a general coping response to discrimination. Unfair treatment because of body weight is associated with unhealthy eating-related behaviors, which may be one pathway through which weight discrimination increases risk for weight gain and obesity.

Black and Hispanic Men Perceived to Be Large Are at Increased Risk for Police Frisk, Search, and Force

Social justice issues remain some of the most pressing problems in the United States. One aspect of social justice involves the differential treatment of demographic groups in the criminal justice system. While data consistently show that Blacks and Hispanics are often treated differently than Whites, one understudied aspect of these disparities is how police officers' assessments of suspects' size affects their decisions. Using over 3 million cases from the New York Police Department (NYPD) Stop, Question, and Frisk (SQF) Database, 2006–2013, this study is the first to explore suspects' race, perceived size, and police treatment. Results indicate that tall and heavy black and Hispanic men are at the greatest risk for frisk or search. Tall and heavy suspects are at increased risk for experiencing police force, with black and Hispanic men being more likely to experience force than white men across size categories.