School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2010 Aug;34(8):1302-7. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2010.45. Epub 2010 Mar 2.
Efforts to explain negative attitudes toward obese people have centered on beliefs about the controllability of body weight, whereas other processes (such as the emotion of disgust) have been largely ignored. This study examined the role of disgust in evaluations of obese people, as well as other social groups (for example smokers, drug addicts, women, homosexuals, politicians).
In three studies, participants (total N=524) made ratings of how much they believe that obesity is a matter of personal control, indicated how disgusted they are with obese people, and reported their attitudes toward obese people. In Study 1, participants also made similar ratings (perceptions of control over group membership, disgust, and attitudes) for 15 additional social groups.
Disgust was the strongest predictor of negative attitudes toward obese people, and disgust fully mediated the association between perceptions of control and attitudes toward obese people. In addition, obese people were rated less favorably, and as more disgusting, than almost all social groups. Across all social groups, perceived control over group membership was positively correlated with disgust ratings, and disgust mediated the link between perceived control and favorability ratings.
These findings indicate that disgust is an important, yet understudied, component of weight bias. Furthermore, these findings situate representations of obesity in a broader context by establishing similarities with other social groups.
解释人们对肥胖者持负面态度的努力主要集中在对体重可控制性的信念上,而其他过程(如厌恶情绪)在很大程度上被忽视了。本研究考察了厌恶感在肥胖者以及其他社会群体(例如吸烟者、吸毒者、女性、同性恋者、政治家)评价中的作用。
在三项研究中,参与者(总 N=524)对肥胖是否是个人可控的问题进行了评价,表明他们对肥胖者的厌恶程度,并报告了他们对肥胖者的态度。在研究 1 中,参与者还对 15 个额外的社会群体进行了类似的评价(对群体成员身份的控制感、厌恶感和态度)。
厌恶感是对肥胖者产生负面态度的最强预测因素,厌恶感完全中介了对控制的感知与对肥胖者态度之间的关系。此外,肥胖者的评价比几乎所有的社会群体都差,而且更令人厌恶。在所有的社会群体中,对群体成员身份的可控制感知与厌恶感评分呈正相关,厌恶感在可控制感知和喜好度评分之间起到了中介作用。
这些发现表明,厌恶感是体重偏见的一个重要但研究不足的组成部分。此外,这些发现通过与其他社会群体建立相似性,将肥胖的表现置于更广泛的背景中。