Social constructions of obesity target population: an empirical look at obesity policy narratives

The present article discusses the results of an empirical test of Schneider and Ingram’s target population framework in terms of the NPF, taking a controversial contemporary issue of obesity as the context for the study. According to Schneider and Ingram, people form normative judgments about policy target populations, which in turn influence the development of public policies serving these populations. A between-subject experiment was conducted to test the power of four policy narratives, devised in accordance with the framework, and to examine the effects of social constructions of target populations on public support for policies either penalizing or benefiting the target population. Findings indicate that social constructions of target populations play an important role in the policy process by triggering individuals to support policies helping and benefiting the positively constructed populations, and policies punishing the negatively constructed populations. In addition, blame and anger as well as sympathy were identified as critical normative judgments produced by social constructions and affecting public attitudes toward the policy issue.