Two Studies Show Obesity Stigma Is Contagious

"Previous research had shown that people tend to derogate individuals who are perceived to be in a social relationship with stigmatized persons," says Mikki Hebl, assistant professor of psychology and management at Rice. "Our studies examined whether this phenomenon also occurs for individuals seen in the presence of an obese person and whether a social relationship is necessary for stigmatization to spread."

Hebl noted that obesity continues to remain one of the most devastating stigmas, particularly for women, despite the fact that almost one-fourth of Americans are obese. She says that the stigma stems from the stereotype of heavy people as being less active, less intelligent, less attractive, less hard-working, less successful, and weak-willed.

"Unfortunately, the results from both of our studies revealed that a male job applicant was rated more negatively when seen with an overweight female than with a normal-weight female," Hebl says. "Just being in the mere proximity of an overweight woman was enough to trigger this stigmatization toward the male applicant." The research results were published in the January issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

In the first study, participants were asked to evaluate a male job applicant in three areas: interpersonal measures, such as being likable, sociable, and enthusiastic; professional qualifications, such as having a corporate image, likelihood of job perseverance, earning potential, and professional ethics; and recommendation for hiring. Each participant received the applicant's folder containing an impressive resume and a photograph of the applicant taken at a social reception held by the potential employer. Some participants received a folder in which the photo showed the applicant seated with an average-weight woman, while others viewed a photo of him with a heavy woman. The participants were not told anything about the relationship between the applicant and the woman seated next to him in the photo. In fact, the woman who appeared in the photos was actually the same person—in one photo she wore a prosthesis to make her look obese.

In all three categories, the average score for the job applicant was higher when he was pictured with the woman of average weight than with the heavy woman.

In a follow-up study, individual participants were told they would be making hiring recommendations. When they arrived in the waiting room for the study, they were introduced to a man and a woman seated next to each other. In half of the cases, the women were of average weight, and in the other half, they wore an obesity prosthesis. Additionally, half of the time, the man and woman engaged in dialogue that indicated a romantic relationship, and in the other half their dialogue implied that each was present independently.

The participants were then taken to another room and asked to rate the male candidate they had just met by the same criteria used for the first study. The second study was intended to measure whether additional variables, such as a perceived relationship—or lack of one—between the male candidate and the obese woman might impact the stigma of being seen with an obese woman.

The results again indicated that the job applicants were rated more negatively whenever they were next to an obese person, regardless of whether a relationship between the man and obese woman was indicated.

"In some of the situations, we even tried to 'untaint' the obese woman by revealing in the dialogue that she had won a highly prestigious campus award and spoke several languages," Hebl says. "But such positive qualities did not make a difference in how the candidate she was with was rated in comparison to the score he received when he was with a woman of average weight."

The two studies, which Hebl conducted with Rice psychology graduate student Laura Mannix, convey how pervasive the negativity of obesity is in society. "Our society holds overweight individuals to be fully responsible for their weight problems, despite repeated studies that show the influence of genetic factors and the overall failure of the weight-loss industry," Hebl says. "The stigma of obesity in our society has become so pervasive that it is no longer just the overweight who are at risk for discrimination. Furthermore, this stigma is so severe that it is no wonder that the prevalence of eating disorders continues to increase and the fear of fat is part of young women's normative discontent."

Hebl notes that, on a more theoretical level, the research demonstrates that impression formation processes are influenced strongly by background information. Further research is needed, she says, to understand the mechanisms underlying the effect that background information has and to understand the extent to which people recognize they are engaging in this behavior.

—B. J. Almond