Understanding And Combat Weight Bias

Isn’t it so easy to look at someone and consider them a certain way? If someone is underweight, people consider them anorexic, and if someone is overweight, people consider them obese. Making assumptions such as "she is too skinny, she probably starves herself", or "he is fat, he must be eating McDonald's all day" are some examples of ignorant comments. Instead of judging someone for being obese or underweight, people should consider the reasons the problem. Individuals who suffer from obesity might suffer from hormonal problems, thyroid, or have a slow metabolism. Same goes for individuals who are underweight, they might suffer from hyperthyroidism, excessive stress, or anorexia. Instead of judging individuals on their weight, people should consider them to be just like themselves. Therefore, people should not judge others based on body shapes, because they might not know about some of the serious illnesses that can result in the

This assignment is being submitted on June 13, 2016, for Professor Kehiante McKinley’s G148/PSY1012 Section 02 General Psychology course.

Julius Caesar stated “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look, he thinks too much; such men are dangerous.” Cassius’ “lean and hungry look” unsettled Julius Caesar, who preferred the company of fat, contented men whom he believed were more trustworthy and appreciative. When we think of heavier people, we think that they are nice because they have nothing to be mean about and typical thin people will be stuck up and rude to the heavier person because they do not see that heavier person for who he really is. This is a stereotype; heavier people are not necessarily jolly, and thin people are not necessarily mean or stuck up. Stereotypical attributes have had a negative effect on society,

In the essay “Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination” by Deborah L. Rhode, she portrays the stereotypes hardships which are faced by certain people. She wants the audience to know how the stereotypes can cause suffering. The way certain people appear can cause people to have certain view point towards them due to their look. Discrimination is generated in people’s minds due to the physical appearance of a person. She wants the people to know that discriminating others because of their race, religion, color, and gender should be stopped. She gives an example in her essay about an obese lady, where the lady is called she not fit for job and

In a study conducted by Ford and Tonander (1998), it was hypothesized that when one’s social identity was threatened by a group who is largely different from them, that individual is likely to form stereotypes. This is based

Words were used to describe positive associations or negative associations. The test was based on how people view fat or thin people subconsciously or consciously. Compared to the more personal test regarding racial profiling, this test’s results were not as poignant or one-sided. The general populace in statistics did score that thin people gave a higher positive reaction. However, moderate positive reactions were nearly equal. The absolute neutral position where one feels equal toward either size was high and showed that being fat is becoming more acceptable. The lower end preference of fat over thin was low but it was prevalent enough to record. The test findings were about on par with how society views fat and thin people. With the advent of obesity, tolerance for the obese is becoming acceptable. It is unclear whether this is because this is an emerging social norm due to the rise in obesity or if it is an indication that mainstream media is promoting full-size and plus-size models and outfits that flatter fat people. Regardless, the tests show an increasing tolerance for fat

During my time enrolled in Psy 3325: Stereotypes, Prejudice Discrimination, taught by Dr. Tay Hack, we explored several topics concerning social differences. Using the textbook ‘ Understanding the Psychology of Diversity’ second Edition, I gained a deeper understanding of how the mind groups individuals together both consciously and unconsciously thus influencing the way we treat a person. In this course we covered racism, classism, homosexism, weightism, ageism, and the stigmas that come with these titles.

In accordance with this previous research, the purpose of this study was to compare the implicit and explicit attitudes people held concerning fat people and thin people. To test these differences, we administered surveys that contained questions pertaining to peoples' explicit attitudes towards fat people as well as the implicit association test, or IAT. The IAT is used to measure implicit attitudes that people are either unwilling to admit due to either presentation concerns or because they are unaware of their unconscious biases(Schwartz et al. 2005)

For the implicit association test (IAT), I took the weight test. The result from the weight test result said that I preferred thin people slightly over overweight people which was in line with what I felt. My bias which favors thin over husky people is probably due to the influence of every social media outlet in America. No matter where people look, whether it is at magazines, commercials, ads, movies, social trends, television shows, or cartoons, a majority of the time only thin people appear. Social media constantly bombards my eyes and thoughts with positive connotations of skinny people, which might have led to my unconscious favoring of a lean body type versus an overweight body type. According to Brian A. Nosek and Rachel G. Riskand, even a brief exposure to an image would cause observers to have an implicit bias towards the image which is moderately scary. This means that people with power like policymakers, employers, and the police can be easily form an implicit bias with the chance of affecting their behavior

We are living in a visual culture. Only now, unlike in the past, we have the ability to access all types of media at the drop of the hat, thus creating a need for instant gratification and a never-ending consumption. But, we have always been a visual society. How else do you explain racism, fat shaming, xenophobia, or other types of visual based prejudice? All of these involve making a “judgment” on how a person looks, or the perception of someone solely for how they appear. As Sam Anderson writes in his article, Letter of Recommendation: Looking Out the Window,

The media has distorted people’s views on the way they look at their own body image. The media has shown what their ideal body type is, while leaving people to feel as if the average weight is not good enough. (Cardosi, 2006) We live in a world where people feel as if having zero body fat is the idea body type to have. Pictures of models for clothing stores, bathing suits, lingerie etc. all exhibit to this to be true. Body image is perceived to be negatively influenced by the media and the way that the media displays their models. Parents, teachers, adolescence and even children all find themselves to be comparing themselves based on what the media exposes. (Levine & Murnen, 2009)

There has been decades of research examining what it referred to as “automatic categorization” (Nelson, 2005. p. 207). Researchers describe this as an essential trait in humans that is a primal response to physical characteristics, such as race, gender, and age, that automatically prompts emotional responses and prejudices. This type of categorization sets the

This essay discusses how social constructions have an effect on obesity and what combination of causes and contributing factors it includes can lead to obesity. `Obesity is the term used to describe someone who is overweight and unhealthy. Obesity shortens life by an average of 10 years. It is very common in the UK and results from a study back in 2014 showed that a whopping 65.3% of men and 58.1% of women are obese here. (UniversityOfBirmingham,2016) Being over weight is generally associated with being lazy and unpleasant. There are a lot of media groups that have influenced our society’s perception on obesity and many factors that lead to the disease. Obesity can be life threatening and can be the start of lethal conditions such as diabetes,

Social comparison theory expresses that individuals want to raise themselves by contrasting themselves with others. Social comparison theory proposed that people consistently evaluate themselves and they do this by comparing themselves to others (Festinger, 1954). Festinger (1954) hypothesized that people evaluate themselves by comparing their opinions of their attributes to those respective opinions that others hold. This will correlate with both internalization of thin ideal media and body comparisons of media figures and other peers, and how this impacts body image.

From this website I had personally taken three different assessments. These assessments had included prejudices on sexuality, race and weight. First, the weight assessment gave me results I was not surprised from. The majority of these questions were related to my tolerance towards overweight people compared to thinner individuals. In any event, my results had indicated that I have a stronger preference for thin people then I have for those who are overweight. However, I think that it is important to note that I used to be overweight. Two years ago I weighed in at 220 pounds at my heaviest. Today, I have been able to maintain my current weight at around 170 pounds. I lost the weight through a lot of dedication and changing my life habits. For this reason, part of me is prejudice towards overweight people in a sense as my results had indicated. This is because to a certain extent I see being overweight as being a life choice. For pretty much my whole life until a couple of years ago I had choose to be overweight. But then