America currently has one of the highest rates of obesity in recorded history, making it the prime location for research on weight bias, or more specifically fat phobia. Such research has found that the more fat phobic one is, the more one believes negative stereotypes about people who are ‘fat’: that they are lazy, sloppy, gluttonous, lack willpower and discipline, and are therefore personally to blame for their weight.
Just today, a rather skinny male friend of mine posted a fat woman joke on Facebook and received scores of likes. And it’s not just on my news feed that weight bias remains socially acceptable and is rarely challenged. Is it any wonder? The sanctions to prohibit weight-based prejudice or discrimination are practically nonexistent.
The latest research, published in the International Journal of Obesity, extended high quality and standardized fat phobia research across the globe to compare the predictors and characteristics of fat phobics and non-fat phobics, with the ultimate goal of helping form weight stigma-reduction interventions that are effective, world over.
Nearly 3,000 adults from the US (1,261), Canada (621), Iceland (802) and Australia (182) were selected due to their countries having similar rates of overweight and obese adults (~60-70%), and comparable per capita income and Westernized democratic government.
All of the participants completed an online survey that included a way to measure beliefs in negative fat stereotypes (The Fat Phobia Scale) and stigma towards fat people (Universal Measure of Bias-FAT version), beliefs about the cause of obesity, the participants’ personal experiences with weight bias, and who they think is to blame.
Statistical analysis revealed many significant relationships between the answers within the questionnaire, identifying both similarities and differences between the four countries:
- Believing that people are personally responsible for obesity due to their personal behaviour and lack of willpower is central to being fat phobic in all four countries.The researchers suggest that these beliefs might in fact be one of the causes of fat phobia. In contrast, people who believed more strongly in physiological and environmental causes of obesity had lower levels of weight bias.