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Disgust, contempt, and anger and the stereotypes of obese people

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Emotions form an important part of stereotyping and prejudice, but little is known about how intergroup emotions are associated with anti-fat prejudice. This study examined the relation between negative intergroup emotions (disgust, contempt, and anger) and the stereotypes of obese people.

Method

A community sample (n = 380) and an undergraduate sample (n = 96) rated obese people on common obesity stereotypes (e.g., lazy, sloppy), and also indicated the extent to which they felt disgust, contempt, and anger toward obese people.

Results

In both samples, participants reported feeling more disgust and contempt than anger toward obese people. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that disgust was a significant positive predictor of obesity stereotypes, but contempt and anger were not.

Conclusion

Overall, these findings provide further evidence that disgust plays an important role in prejudice toward obese people.

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Acknowledgments

Preparation of this article was supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP130100759).

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Lenny R. Vartanian

  2. Department of Psychology, Earlham College, Richmond, IN, USA

    Margaret A. Thomas

  3. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Eric J. Vanman

Authors
  1. Lenny R. Vartanian
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  2. Margaret A. Thomas
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  3. Eric J. Vanman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lenny R. Vartanian.

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Vartanian, L.R., Thomas, M.A. & Vanman, E.J. Disgust, contempt, and anger and the stereotypes of obese people. Eat Weight Disord 18, 377–382 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0067-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0067-2

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