Body Weight Exposure

What it measures

A five-item sentence-completion scale measuring the degree to which a person feels their body weight is visible, exposed, and subject to judgment by others in a given social context. Items complete the stem 'In this situation...' and assess whether others can see the body, know the weight, judge physical shape, or form impressions based on appearance. Developed to measure weight-related stigma vulnerability in marketing contexts, the scale captures the perceived salience and social visibility of weight as a stigmatising characteristic.

Response format

7-point Likert (sentence completion)

Scale items

• ...people could see my body.
• ...people would know my weight.
• ...my weight would be visible and exposed.
• ...other people in the group could see what physical shape I am in.
• ...people could judge my weight.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

SENTENCE COMPLETION FORMAT: Items complete a stem (e.g., 'In this situation...'). Single alpha: α = .96 — Harmeling et al. (2021, Study 3 pretest; n = 80 MTurk). VALIDITY: Used as manipulation check; successful detection provides preliminary validity. Scale appears original to the authors. Same paper as Perceived Email Sender Identity (ESID, ID 2095), Audience Intention Cue (AICE, ID 2096), and Body Weight Stigma (BWST, ID 2108).

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Harmeling, Colleen M., Martin Mende, Maura L. Scott, and Robert W. Palmatier (2021). Marketing through the eyes of the stigmatized. Journal of Marketing Research, 58(2), 223–245.

Keywords