The changing face of obesity: exposure to and acceptance of obesity

Adiposity has started to become the norm in many western countries. The current studies tested the hypothesis that exposure to heavier body weights will increase the acceptance of obesity, which could further propagate rises in body weight.

Across three experiments we examined the effect that exposing participants to photographs of either obese or healthy weight males had on later judgments about an obese male. We also tested how obesity exposure impacted upon visual preferences and how accepting participants were of obesity, to examine the mechanisms by which exposure to obesity increases acceptance of heavier body weights.

In Experiment 1, obesity exposure resulted in an obese male being judged more positively, than after exposure to healthy weights. Experiment 2 replicated the effect that obesity exposure had on acceptability and demonstrated this effect was mediated by obesity exposure increasing how much participants liked the way an obese person looked. In Experiment 3, exposure to obesity resulted in participants being more likely to believe that an obese person did not need to lose weight.

Findings across these three studies were consistent and suggest that exposure to adiposity results in an increased acceptance of obesity, by altering visual preferences towards heavier body weights.