The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior

The Meaning of Size 89

of women are becoming thinner, then a larger size reflects unattractive-
ness and thinness is essentially associated with attractiveness. Body size also
generates a range of other associations (see figure 5.2). This has been explored
using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research suggests that people of all ages and sexes and from
a number of different cultures stigmatize and consequently discriminate
against obese people (Larkin and Pines, 1979; Allon, 1982; Harris, Harris, and
Bochner, 1982). In particular, the obese have been rated as more unattract-
ive (Dejong, 1980), lacking in self-discipline (Tiggemann and Rothblum,
1988), lazy (Weiss, 1980), unpopular (Staffieri, 1967), and less active,
intelligent, hardworking, successful, athletic, or popular (Harris, Harris, and
Bochner, 1982) than their thinner counterparts. Studies also indicate that
fat women are judged more negatively than fat men and that these stereo-
types are independent of the body size of the person doing the rating
(Tiggemann and Rothblum, 1988). Research also shows that such negative
stereotypes may result in discrimination, as in one study carried out among
college students, in which overweight men and women were less likely to
be recommended for employment after being watched performing tasks
in an identical fashion to their thinner counterparts (Larkin and Pines, 1979).
Such negative views have been reported among a range of populations,
including businesspersons (Klesges et al., 1990), rehabilitation counselors
(Kaplan, 1984), doctors (Blaxter, 1978), and medical students (Weise et al.,
1992). For example, in one early study Maddox and Liederman (1969) asked
a group of physicians and medical students to rate their overweight
patients for a set of personal characteristics. They found that 97 percent

attractiveness

control

success
freedom

overeating

unsuccessful

unpopular

lazy

a self-

inflicted

state

unattractive

Thinness Obesity

Figure 5.2 The meaning of size.