The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 94 their own weight bias, which may have presented a self-report limitation. The results of overweight counselors having higher mean scores on Trust and Selection than average-weight counselors give room for consideration that social desirability may have influenced some of the participants’ answers. Future studies may benefit from including a test for social desirability or implicit association tests to increase the study’s validity. Future Considerations Future considerations for research encompassing weight bias across the spectrum would require developing an anti-thin attitude measure to identify weight attitudes toward underweight individuals accurately. This measure would be beneficial for bringing more awareness to underweight discrimination and measuring its impact on professionals and members of society. As society continues to push the thin ideal, people will strive to fit that ideal. However, as our results suggest, underweight counselors may face significant weight bias from clients. Consequently, counselors would benefit from a measure created to address underweight bias. The counseling profession lacks extensive, meaningful research regarding the physical and educational factors that clients find most important in selecting, trusting, and following the advice of a counselor. Another factor to incorporate in future research is a counselor’s level of education and expertise. Clients may more favorably evaluate an average weight counselor with a specialist or doctoral degree than an underweight or overweight colleague with the same credentials. If weight bias influences these variables despite the skill level of the counselor, clients may miss receiving help from highly trained and educated people. Additionally, directly exploring the role that empathy, congruence, and strengths-based counseling have compared to weight bias may yield significant findings. A final consideration for future research involves focusing on counselors who work in the ED field, a specialty that deals with eating, weight, body image, and exercise. Though we did not find significant differences in this study between those with and without an ED, our hypothetical counselor was not an ED counselor. These counselors may experience more judgment and assumptions of lifestyle choices by their clients, as they are considered specialists in EDs. Studies show that being underweight may indicate an ED, such as anorexia or binge eating disorder (Davies et al., 2020a; Marini, 2017). It is unknown if clients would replicate the results found in this study regarding counselors in the ED field. Conclusion This study examined participants’ weight bias toward hypothetical counselors of different weights. Our results highlight the existence of weight bias toward counselors on both ends of the weight spectrum. Even with strengthening the counseling relationship through empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard, counselors may benefit from reflecting on potential client weight bias and its impact on their therapeutic alliance. Additionally, weight as a multicultural issue increases counselors’ competence in addressing the prejudice and stereotypes that may limit their client’s willingness to trust them, follow their advice, or select them as their counselor. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript.
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