Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach, United States.
Google, New York City, United States.
Body Image. 2019 Dec;31:19-23. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.004. Epub 2019 Aug 17.
Body weight is a critical dimension by which we evaluate others, with heavier individuals facing higher levels of stigma and discrimination compared to thinner individuals. Yet, the perception of body weight can be ambiguous, suggesting that stereotypic associations and heuristics influence which bodies are deemed as "typical" for a particular group or social category. Here, we investigate whether interdependent associations between body weight and social category dimensions (ethnicity, gender, age, and sex) affect the typicality ratings of a heavier body. Specifically, we hypothesize that heavier bodies labelled as Asian, feminine, younger, or female, compared to Black, White, masculine, older, or male, will be rated less typical and these typicality judgments will mediate social evaluations. Participants made typicality and social evaluative judgments about a wireframe body with a set BMI of 38, accompanied by one of sixteen category labels (e.g., Asian man). Our results show that typicality judgments broadly align with our hypotheses and mediate social evaluations of the heavier body. Overall, we showcase the interdependent nature of weight and other social categories, highlighting the role of typicality for social evaluations of heavier targets.
体重是我们评价他人的一个重要维度，与较瘦的人相比，体重较重的人面临更高水平的污名化和歧视。然而，对体重的感知可能是模糊的，这表明刻板印象的关联和启发式思维会影响哪些身体被认为是特定群体或社会类别的“典型”。在这里，我们研究了体重和社会类别维度（种族、性别、年龄和性别）之间的相互关联是否会影响较重身体的典型性评分。具体来说，我们假设与黑人、白人、男性、老年或男性相比，被标记为亚洲人、女性化、年轻或女性的较重身体的典型性评分将较低，而这些典型性判断将介导社会评价。参与者对一个带有设定 BMI 为 38 的线框身体和十六个类别标签之一（例如亚洲男性）做出了典型性和社会评价判断。我们的结果表明，典型性判断大致符合我们的假设，并介导了对较重身体的社会评价。总的来说，我们展示了体重和其他社会类别的相互依存性质，强调了典型性在对较重目标的社会评价中的作用。
