Evaluative implications of intersecting body weight and other social categories: The role of typicality

A scoping review and index of body stimuli in psychological science

Naturalistic body stimuli are necessary for understanding many aspects of human psychology, yet there are no centralized databases of body stimuli. Furthermore, there are a high number of independently developed stimulus sets lacking in standardization and reproducibility potential, and a general lack of organization, contributing to issues of both replicability and generalizability in body-related research. We conducted a comprehensive scoping review to index and explore existing naturalistic whole-body stimuli. Our research questions were as follows: (1) What sets of naturalistic human whole-body stimuli are present in the literature? And (2) On what factors (e.g., demographics, emotion expression) do these stimuli vary? To be included, stimulus sets had to (1) include human bodies as stimuli; (2) be photographs, videos, or other depictions of real human bodies (not computer generated, drawn, etc.); (3) include the whole body (defined as torso, arms, and legs); and (4) could include edited images, but still had to be recognizable as human bodies. We identified a relatively large number of existing stimulus sets (N = 79) which offered relative variability in terms of main manipulated factors and the degree of visual information included (i.e., inclusion of heads and/or faces). However, stimulus sets were demographically homogenous, skewed towards White, young adult, and female bodies. We identified significant issues in reporting and availability practices, posing a challenge to the generalizability, reliability, and reproducibility of body-related research. Accordingly, we urge researchers to adopt transparent and accessible practices and to take steps to diversify body stimuli.

Stereotype Application at the Intersection of Body Shape, Gender/Sex, and Sexual Orientation

Though much work has examined how sexual orientation and body shape are jointly constituted, less has examined the joint perception of body shape, gender/sex, and sexuality. We draw upon multifarious person perception approaches to examine how personality and sexuality-related traits are attributed to bodies of varying shape (skinny, average, fat) when presented with differing social identities along the axes of gender/sex (male, female) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, lesbian/gay). In a sample of 991 participants, we found robust evidence that trait application varied by both body shape and sexual orientation. Further, supporting our hypotheses, we found that gay male bodies were perceived as more feminine than heterosexual male bodies, and skinny male bodies were perceived as more feminine than other body shapes. Supporting additional hypothesizing, lesbian female bodies were perceived as more masculine than heterosexual female bodies, and fat female bodies were perceived as the most masculine across sexual orientations. Partially supporting our hypotheses, we found that average bodies were perceived as the most typical for all identities; further, bodies perceived as less typical of their social identity category were perceived as experiencing heightened prejudice on the basis of body shape.

Bodies and Minds: Heavier Weight Targets Are De-Mentalized as Lacking in Mental Agency

Five experiments investigate the hypothesis that heavier weight individuals are denied mental agency (i.e., higher order cognitive and intentional capacities), but not experience (e.g., emotional and sensory capacities), relative to average weight individuals. Across studies, we find that as targets increase in weight, they are denied mental agency; however, target weight has no reliable influence on ascriptions of experience (Studies 1a-2b). Furthermore, the de-mentalization of heavier weight targets was associated with both disgust and beliefs about targets' physical agency (Study 3). Finally, de-mentalization affected role assignments. Heavier weight targets were rated as helpful for roles requiring experiential but not mentally agentic faculties (Study 4). Heavier weight targets were also less likely than chance to be categorized into a career when it was described as requiring mental agency (versus experience; Study 5). These findings suggest novel insights into past work on weight stigma, wherein discrimination often occurs in domains requiring mental agency.

Buffering anti-fat attitudes using contact: The roles of contact quantity, duration, favorability, and intergroup anxiety

Decades of intergroup contact research have found that contact with outgroups reduces negative attitudes. Yet, few studies have examined the association between contact and anti-fat attitudes. Furthermore, testing different facets of contact, namely contact quantity versus contact duration, provides more precise theoretical predictions for their effectiveness in this under-tested context. This study examined whether intergroup anxiety was indirectly related to and contact favorability moderated the relationship between contact and anti-fat attitudes, tested through the constructs of contact quantity (i.e., how many individuals interacted with) and contact duration (i.e., how often time was spent). Undergraduates (N = 343; 260 women) based in the United States completed an online survey assessing intergroup contact, contact favorability, intergroup anxiety, and anti-fat attitudes. Analyses of conditional indirect effects showed that longer contact but not more contact reduced intergroup anxiety, which lowered anti-fat attitudes. The indirect paths for both contact types were not conditional upon contact favorability. Contact favorability moderated the association between contact duration and anti-fat attitudes such that longer and more favorable contact lowered anti-fat attitudes. Findings are discussed within the contact hypothesis, and future research should explore the distinct elements of the hypothesis as applicable to anti-fat prejudice in in-person and online contexts.