Anti-obesity medication use sparks effort-based sanctions and social penalties (opens in new tab)

Obesity is one of the most widespread public health risks, with more than 1 billion affected individuals worldwide. While treatment with ‘anti-obesity’ medication (GLP-1 agonists) shows promising results, patients face public backlash for ‘cutting corners’. Across four pre-registered within-subject studies in three countries (N = 1.205, Belgium, US, UK), we found that users of GLP-1 medication are perceived as less moral, presumably because they are thought to have exerted less effort in thei...