Brief research reportThe relationship between physical appearance concerns, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice
Introduction
As global rates of obesity continue to rise, there is an increasing acknowledgment that anti-fat prejudice is a significant social problem (weight bias, obesity stigma; (Andreyeva et al., 2008, Puhl and Heuer, 2009, Puhl et al., 2008). Indeed, US research suggests that weight-based prejudice has increased 66% over the past decade, placing it at a comparable level to race-based discrimination (Puhl et al., 2008). Similarly, Latner and Stunkard (2003) found an increase in anti-fat prejudice amongst children over the last 40 years.
Research seeking to explicate the reasons for anti-fat prejudice has largely focused on attributions regarding the causes of obesity (e.g., lack of personal control, laziness), and stereotypical characteristics of fat people (e.g., smelly, stupid; Puhl & Heuer, 2009). This line of theoretical and empirical research, although useful, has limitations that are becoming evident. Notably, studies that have sought to reduce anti-fat prejudice through modification of attributions, beliefs, and stereotypes have been shown to be largely unsuccessful in reducing prejudice (Daníelsdóttir, O’Brien, & Ciao, 2010). Theorists have argued that attributions and beliefs about targets (e.g., fat people) represent post hoc reasoning for underlying (automatic) emotional reactions or feelings toward those targets (Haidt, 2001). Others have gone further in suggesting that attributions may function as justifications for prejudice toward a target rather than being the primary drivers of prejudice (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003). Clearly, it is important to better understand the mechanisms underlying anti-fat prejudice in order to improve anti-fat prejudice reduction interventions.
Recent work suggests that constructs such as disgust (Vartanian, 2010), physical appearance concerns (O’Brien et al., 2007a, O’Brien et al., 2007b), and pathogen/illness avoidance mechanisms (Park et al., 2003, Park et al., 2007) may underpin anti-fat prejudice. For example, Vartanian (2010) found that disgust was related to dislike of fat people compared to thin people. Moreover, because disgust is associated with morality and fat people have been viewed as immoral (e.g., gluttonous, sloth, greedy; Crandall, 1994, Townend, 2009), the disgust-obesity link may also be explained by socio-cultural factors rather than by innate disgust mechanisms.
Other researchers have found that people's own physical appearance concerns and level of investment in physical appearance are associated with anti-fat prejudice (O’Brien et al., 2009). Unsurprisingly, measures assessing body image concerns frequently include items directly related to being fat (e.g., ‘I constantly worry about being or becoming fat’). Similarly, research has shown that fat people are perceived to be physically unattractive (Crandall, 1994) and ugly (Maddox & Liederman, 1969). What is not known is whether there is an interrelationship between physical appearance concerns, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice.
The link between physical appearance concerns, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice may arise from negative cognitions regarding the physical appearance of fat or obese people. Simply put, the physical appearance of a fat person may evoke disgust because it contravenes personal/societal attitudes toward physical appearance, slimness, and beauty (O’Brien et al., 2009), and/or unconscious drives related to evolutionary fitness (Oaten, Stevenson, & Case, 2009). Any felt disgust arising from this contravention of appearance ideals may then result in negative thoughts about fat people in order to justify or allow expression of negative emotions (i.e., prejudice and discrimination). Explanations for the dislike/avoidance of certain targets (e.g., obese, disabled) do suggest an interplay between the physical appearance of targets and disgust (Oaten et al., 2009, Oaten et al., 2011).
Although research has shown a link between physical appearance concerns (body image) and anti-fat prejudice, and between disgust and anti-fat prejudice, there has been no research examining the interrelationships between these constructs. This exploratory study addresses this gap. Based on previous research, we propose that individuals who have greater physical appearance concerns/investment will be more likely to view fat/obese people as physically unattractive because it contravenes personal and societal values regarding physical appearance. These cognitions will in turn evoke feelings of disgust, which may manifest in anti-fat prejudice. Thus, we hypothesized that anti-fat prejudice would be related to both physical appearance concerns and disgust; and that the relationship between physical appearance concerns and anti-fat prejudice would be mediated by disgust.
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 1649 university students at the University of Iceland (N = 1171, 71% female). Mean (M) age was 28 years (SD = 8.9; range 18–76), and mean BMI was 25.2 (SD = 4.83; range 16.23–50.15). Participants came from a diverse range of university faculties including; School of Social Sciences (34%), School of Health Sciences (20%), School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (17%), School of Education (14%) and School of Humanities (13%).
Anti-fat prejudice
The anti-fat attitudes (AFA) measure is a 13 item
Results
Women had lower BMIs, dislike, and blame scores, than men (see Table 1). Men had lower body image disturbance (BIDQ), fear of fat, and disgust scores (all ps < .05). The overall mean anti-fat prejudice scores for this study were M = 2.95, SD = 1.42 for dislike, and M = 6.13, SD = 1.51 for blame, which is comparable to previous work (Lieberman, Tyber, & Latner, 2012).
Table 2 displays correlations between variables for men and women. For women, significant correlations were found between most variables. Of
Discussion
The present study explored relationships between anti-fat prejudice, physical appearance concerns, and disgust. As hypothesized, there were statistically significant univariate and multivariate relationships between anti-fat prejudice, physical appearance concerns, and disgust, with relationships stronger in women than men. For women only, disgust partially mediated relationships between BIDQ and dislike of fat people, and between fear of fat and dislike of fat people.
The finding that disgust
References (22)
- et al.
Measuring negative body image: Validation of the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire in a nonclinical population
Body Image
(2004) - et al.
Body image and explicit and implicit anti-fat attitudes: The mediating role of physical appearance comparisons
Body Image
(2007) - et al.
Upward and downward physical appearance-related comparisons: Development of a measure and examination of predictive qualities
Body Image
(2009) - et al.
Pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and the stigmatization of obese people
Evolution & Human Behavior
(2007) - et al.
Disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity. Separate constructs that are differentially related to specific fears
Personality & Individual Differences
(2006) - et al.
Changes in perceived weight discrimination among Americans, 1995–1996 through 2004–2006
Obesity
(2008) Prejudice against fat people: Ideology and self-interest
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
(1994)- et al.
A justification–suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice
Psychological Bulletin
(2003) - et al.
Anti-fat prejudice reduction: A review of published studies
Obesity Facts
(2010) The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment
Psychological Review
(2001)
Getting worse: The stigmatization of obese children
Obesity Research
Cited by (36)
Correlates of Weight Bias in Adults From the NutriNet-Santé Study
2023, American Journal of Preventive MedicineSelf-disgust as a potential mechanism underlying the association between body image disturbance and suicidal thoughts and behaviours
2022, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :This is an important addition to the extant literature because, unlike cognitive factors (e.g., distortion, rumination), self-disgust is characterized by unique phenomenological features which may elicit distinctive behavioural responses in the context of eating disorders and associated symptoms (Espeset et al., 2012). This supports Cash's (2004) cognitive-behavioural model of BID whereby body image concerns lead to the experience of aversive self-conscious emotions, such as shame and guilt, which then facilitate the manifestation of behavioural responses (O'Brien et al., 2013; Stasik, O'Brien, & Schmidt, 2018). Our findings suggest that self-disgust may provide another manifestation of aversive self-conscious emotion experiences in the context of body image disturbance, and this may increase the risk for self-destructive behaviour, such as suicide.
Prevalence of overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity in Health Sciences Faculty students
2021, Clinical Nutrition ESPENCitation Excerpt :It was emphasized that this may be the indicator of malnourishment of female students, and that being underweight is preferred by female students today and the desire to be underweight is prevalent and is a trend [36]. According to a study with an average age of 28 in Iceland, the relationship between body perception and obesity bias is stronger in females than in males [37]. The desire to be underweight due to body perception and image in young women is common in Turkish society.
Exploring stigma of “extreme” weight gain: The terror of fat possible selves in women's responses to hypothetically gaining one hundred pounds
2017, Women's Studies International ForumCitation Excerpt :This hostility toward fat bodies has real consequences for women, as some studies have identified excessive fear of fatness as connected to eating disturbances, negative cognitions about fatness, and women's desire for thinness (Dalley et al., 2013; Levitt, 2004; Woodman & Steer, 2011; Woud, Anschutz, Van Strien, & Becker, 2011). Icelandic college students with more concerns about physical appearance reported more disgust toward fat people and more anti-fat prejudice than those without concerns about physical appearance (O'Brien et al., 2013). That said, the desire for thinness and the fear of fatness may signify two entirely different constructs with different implications for eating and body image (Levitt, 2003).
Toddlers' bias to look at average versus obese figures relates to maternal anti-fat prejudice
2016, Journal of Experimental Child PsychologyCitation Excerpt :One explanation of an anti-fat bias is that it is communicated through maternal or paternal attitudes via a process of social learning (Puhl & Heuer, 2009). To this end, there are attributions representing obesity as a moral failing (e.g., lazy, gluttonous) and stereotypes that portray people who are fat as unattractive, smelly, and unhygienic (O’Brien et al., 2013). Although there is some consistency in individuals’ prejudice toward obese individuals (e.g., in China and America; Klaczynski, 2008), there are also differences suggesting that social learning occurs.