Predicting anti-fat attitudes: individual differences based on actual and perceived body size, weight importance,...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relative impact of actual and perceived weight, weight importance, entity mindset, and ethnicity on anti-fat attitudes as well as to examine whether certain variables play the role of mediator. Participants included a multiethnic U.S. sample of 923 female undergraduates who completed a series of measures online. Lower BMI, higher perceived weight, higher importance of weight, endorsement of an entity mindset, and identification as White as compared to Black, Hispanic, or Asian predicted higher overall anti-fat attitudes. Examination of the individual Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire subscales (i.e. dislike, fear of fat, and willpower) using Relative Weight Analysis suggested that weight importance is an important predictor of multiple aspects of anti-fat attitudes. In addition, weight importance mediated the relationship between perceived weight and fear of fat as well as the relationship between ethnicity and dislike. Implications of findings and future research directions are discussed.