Weight discrimination in the workplace: A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between weight and work-related outcomes

This study provides a meta-analytic review of correlational research examining the relationship between job incumbent/applicant weight and work-related outcomes. Given the differences between correlational and experimental research, our findings show an understandably weaker relationship between weight and work-related outcomes than has been found in past meta-analyses of the experimental research. However, our findings do support the directionality of (a) the overall effect of weight on work-related outcomes, and (b) the moderating role of job incumbent/applicant sex and the type of work-related outcome found in past meta-analyses of experimental research. In addition, this review provides initial meta-analytic evidence for the roles of race, the sex-race interaction, and age as moderators of the relationship between weight and work-related outcomes.