The relationships of age, sex, ethnicity, and weight to stereotypes of obesity and self perception.

In order to assess the relationships of stereotypes of obesity and of self perceptions to age, sex, ethnicity and weight, 447 adults and children varying in sex, ethnic background and weight rated 12 line drawings of people who varied in age, sex and weight, as well as giving self ratings on similar scales. The normal weight stimuli, compared with the fat oe thin ones, were more wanted as friends and were seen as happier, having more friends, being smarter, and better looking but less lonely and mean. The thin stimulus figures were seen as having more friends, being better looking, smarter and meaner than the fat ones. These trends held for both the sexes, all ages, all ethnic groups, and children of all weights. Names or nicknames assigned to the stimuli also reflected stereotypes: Fat nicknames were given primarily to the fat stimuli; Thin and Height-related ones were given to the thin stimuli; and the average stimuli received more Neutral/Normal and Clearly Positive and fewer Other/Ambiguous and Clearly Negative names. Self evaluations suggested that fifth graders and American Indians were lowest in self concept on some scales, consistent with other research. Overweight subjects were generally similar to average and underweight ones in self ratings, contrary to expectation. Apparently these subjects did not perceive themselves as negatively as previous research and their ratings of the obese stimuli might have caused us to expect.