Examining the Effect of Role-playing Exercise by Utilizing an Obesity Suit in a Simulation Scenario on Weight Bias and Empathy Levels Among Nutrition Sciences Students

• A role-playing exercise by utilizing an obesity suit in a simulation scenario (Behavioral): All participants will be asked to wear an obesity simulation suit (Unisex obesity Simulation suit, Erler-Zimmer, Germany) and to participate in a standardized scenario that simulates meetings between a person with obesity and a 'registered dietitian'. The 'registered dietitian' will be presented by a professional role-player and the scenario will encompass different levels of weight bias through dialogue and the use of inappropriate equipment.

Primary outcomes

• Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire ('AFA') [Change from baseline at three- weeks post-intervention]: The 'AFA' indicates explicit anti-fat attitudes toward people with obesity and is composed of 13-items rated on a 10-point Likert scale and divided into three subscales ('dislike', 'fear about fat' and 'willpower'), with higher total scores indicating stronger anti-fat attitudes.
• The short-form of fat-phobia scale (' F-scale') [Change from baseline at three- weeks post-intervention]: The 'F-scale' indicates fat-phobic attitudes toward people with obesity and is composed of 14-pairs of adjectives that are used to describe people with obesity (e.g., 'no willpower' vs. 'has willpower') and ranked on a 1-5 scale according to the point closest to the adjective name that describes their feelings and beliefs. Higher scores indicate stronger fat-phobic attitudes.
• Weight Implicit Association Test ('IAT') [Change from baseline at three- weeks post-intervention]: IAT tool is an indirect measure of implicit bias toward weight which uses the constructs of "fat people" versus "thin people" and the polarized attitudes of "good" and "bad" to detect implicit weight bias.
• The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (S-version) [Change from baseline at three- weeks post-intervention]: A 20-item scale that is designed to measure empathy in medical students.

Secondary outcomes

• Demographics [At baseline]: Questions regarding age, gender, occupation, marital status, and religious affiliation.
• Weight perception [At baseline]: Questions regarding self-definition of weight status, the importance of weight to self-confidence, and much control a person has over the weight.
• Weight history [At baseline]: Questions regarding obesity during childhood, obesity during last decade, family members who struggle with obesity, currently in any process of losing weight.
• Objective weight measurement [At baseline]: Measurement of actual weight in kilograms.
• Objective height measurement [At baseline]: Measurement of actual height in meters.
• The beliefs about the causes of obesity questionnaire [At baseline]: Rating the importance of 20 factors contributing to obesity by using a 5-point Likert-scale response format.

Sex: All, ages: 18 Years to any, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* undergraduate students in their first year of the nutrition sciences program at Ariel University or Tel-Hai College
* age ≥18 years
* having fluency in Hebrew
* ability to wear an obesity suit
* willingness to participate in the study

• Results publication: Tayar-Wachsberger I, Green G, Pinus M, Tepper S, Sherf-Dagan S. Examining the effect of an obesity suit role-playing exercise on empathy and weight bias in nutrition students. Nutrition. 2025 Oct;138:112813. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2025.112813. Epub 2025 Apr 19. PMID 40466592