From Attribution to Emancipation: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Weight Stigma in Nursing

This article articulates the Attribution Theory and the Emancipatory Theory of Compassion to examine how attributional beliefs about the controllability of body weight become enacted within nursing practice. While Attribution Theory elucidates how nurses' judgments toward people living in larger bodies are shaped, the Emancipatory Theory of Compassion situates these judgments within biopower, radical disconnect, and the unspeakable in care environments. By linking cognitive attributions to biopolitical care spaces, this framework provides nurses with a critical lens to identify how weight stigma is reproduced in practice and highlights emancipatory compassion as a pathway toward advocacy and more equitable nursing care.