School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85284-2402, USA.
Am J Hum Biol. 2012 May-Jun;24(3):332-8. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22233. Epub 2012 Feb 18.
Human biologists are increasingly engaging with current global trends toward obesity. However, little is considered about how variation in cultural views of "fat" might shape the biology of obesity, such as through pathways related to socially induced stress. Recent research indicates elevated levels of explicit fat-stigma in middle income nations, suggesting potentially high levels of psychosocial stress around "being fat." We use the case of Paraguay to test if high levels of explicit prejudice around "being fat" also suggest internalization of those ideas in ways that might predict stress effects.
Using a sample of women in Paraguay (N = 200), we test if the statement of anti-fat beliefs on standard scales correlates with similarly strong level of cognitive bias against fat based on an implicit association test. We confirm reasonable comparability of the findings to prior published studies by collecting data for U.S. undergraduates (N = 66) using the same set of tools.
Women in Paraguay reveal high levels of explicit anti-fat bias in an interview on a standard (Attitudes to Obese People) scale, suggesting a shared cultural norm of fat-is-bad. However, Paraguayan women display, on average, no anti-fat stigma in cognitive testing.
In contrast to what has been observed in industrialized nations, the high levels of explicit fat-stigma does not necessarily correlate with high levels of implicit fat-stigma. This means that pathways between obesity, psychosocial stress, and health outcomes may be very different across socioecological contexts.
人类生物学家越来越关注当前全球肥胖趋势。然而，很少有人考虑到对“胖”的文化观念的差异如何塑造肥胖的生物学特性，例如通过与社会诱发压力相关的途径。最近的研究表明，中等收入国家的明确的肥胖歧视水平升高，表明围绕“肥胖”存在潜在的高心理社会压力。我们以巴拉圭为例，检验围绕“肥胖”的高度明确偏见是否也暗示了以可能预测压力影响的方式内化了这些观念。
我们使用巴拉圭女性的样本（N=200），通过内隐联想测试检验标准量表上的反肥胖信念陈述是否与基于同样强烈的对脂肪的认知偏见相关。我们通过使用相同的工具收集美国本科生的数据（N=66），确认了与之前发表的研究具有合理可比性的发现。
在标准（肥胖人群态度）量表上的访谈中，巴拉圭女性表现出高度的明确反肥胖偏见，这表明存在肥胖是坏事的共同文化规范。然而，巴拉圭女性在认知测试中平均没有反肥胖歧视。
与工业化国家观察到的情况相反，高水平的明确肥胖歧视并不一定与高水平的隐性肥胖歧视相关。这意味着肥胖、心理社会压力和健康结果之间的途径可能在社会生态环境中非常不同。
