Anti-fat bias

Anti-fat bias refers to the prejudicial assumption of personality characteristics based on a visual assessment of a person as being obese. Fat activists allege anti-fat bias can be found in many facets of society,^[1] and blame the media for the pervasiveness of this phenomenon.^[2][3]

Trait attribution

Anti-fat bias leads people to associate individuals who are overweight or obese with negative personality traits such as "lazy", "greedy", "stupid", "smelly", "slow", or "unmotivated." This bias is not restricted to clinically obese individuals, but also encompasses those whose body shape is in some way found unacceptable according to society's modern standards (although still within the normal or overweight BMI range).^[4] It is a classical example of the halo effect in cultures where physical preferences favor low body fat. Fat-shaming is fairly common in America, even though most adult Americans are overweight. Huffington Post wrote "two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Yet overweight and obese individuals are subject to discrimination from employers, healthcare professionals and potential romantic partners".^[5]

Anti-fat bias can be moderated by giving a mitigating context to the individual’s appearance of obesity.^[6] For example, when told an individual was obese because of "overeating" and "lack of exercise", a higher implicit bias was found among study participants than those not provided with context. When the group was told that "genetics" was to blame they did not exhibit a lowered implicit bias after the explanation.

Anti-fat bias is not a strictly Western cultural phenomenon. Instances of implicit anti-fat bias have been found across several cultures.^[7]

Newer research suggests that the stereotypical traits and attributions are post hoc justifications for the expression of prejudice against obese people. Initial unconscious feelings of disgust and associated negative valence when viewing obesity may evoke negative emotions that need to be justified, and thus, negative attributions supporting or justifying the negative feelings towards obesity are produced.

Additionally, recent work around physical appearance issues, body image, and anti-fat or obesity prejudice suggests that feelings about one's own appearance may stimulate downward physical comparisons with obese individuals in order to make one feel better about their own physical appearance.^[8][9]

Media

The media is often blamed for the strong negative trait associations that society has toward overweight individuals. There is a great deal of empirical research to support the idea of Thin Ideal Media, or the idea that the media tends to glorify and focus on thin actors and actresses, models, and other public figures while avoiding the use of overweight individuals.

In a study of children's movies and books regarding messages about the importance of appearance, media targeted for children were heavily saturated with messages emphasizing attractiveness as an important part of relationships and interpersonal interaction.^[10] Among the movies used in the study, two Disney movies contained the highest amount of messages about personal beauty. This study also found 64% of the videos studied portrayed obese characters as unattractive, evil, cruel, unfriendly, and more than half of the portrayals involved the consideration or consumption of food.

Representation of overweight individuals in prime time programming is not representative of the actual proportion in the population.^[11] Only 14% of females and 24% of males featured in the top ten prime-time fictional programs of 2003 were overweight. Those that were shown had few romantic interactions, rarely shared affection with other characters, and were frequently shown consuming food.

In 2007, another analysis sampled 135 scenes featuring overweight individuals from popular television programs and movies and coded for anti-fat humor.^[12] The majority of anti-fat humor found was verbal and directed at the individual in their presence.

On September 29, 2011, prominent nationally syndicated columnist Michael Kinsley (founding editor of Slate magazine) wrote, "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cannot be president: He is just too fat ... why should Christie's weight be more than we can bear in a president? Why should it even be a legitimate issue if he runs? One reason is that a presidential candidate should be judged on behavior and character ... Perhaps Christie is the one to help us get our national appetites under control. But it would help if he got his own under control first."^[13]

Governor Christie's response, on October 4, 2011: "The people who pretend to be serious commentators who wrote about this are among the most ignorant I've ever heard in my life. To say that, because you’re overweight, you are therefore undisciplined—you know, I don't think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society, so that kind of stuff is just ignorant."^[14]

In 2013, Haley Morris-Cafiero's photography project "Wait Watchers", in which she photographed the reactions to her presence by random passers-by, went viral. New York magazine wrote, "The frequency with which Morris-Cafiero succeeds at documenting passersby's visible disdain for her body seems pretty depressing".^[15]

Effects

A crash simulation with a slender (left) and obese (right) passenger. Design of automobiles protects low-weight people more than high weight people.

Anti-fat bias can be found in the educational system. When compared to a group of psychology students of the same age, a group of students training to become physical education (PE) teachers were more likely to display implicit anti-fat attitudes.^[16]

One dangerous effect of anti-fat bias is the presence of this bias in healthcare professionals, whose biases could result in a lower quality of treatment for overweight patients. Even those medical professionals who specialize in the treatment of obesity have been found to have strong negative associations toward obese individuals.^[17]

Anti-fat bias can also be found at an early age. Preschool-aged children reported a preference for average-sized children over overweight children as friends.^[18] As a consequence of anti-fat bias, overweight individuals often find themselves suffering repercussions in many facets of society, including legal and employment issues later in their life.^[1]

According to a 2010 review of published studies, interventions seeking to reduce prejudice and social stigma against fat and obesity are largely ineffective.^[19]

Slang terms

Slang terms that refer to obesity, some of which have been called derogatory, include "love handles", "thunder thighs", "muffin tops", "saddlebags", "spare tire" and "beer belly".

See also

• Fat acceptance movement
• Sizeism
• Reddit anti-fat communities

References