Study Finds Negative Associations with Portrayal of Overweight and Obese Persons on Television Programs

Bias Against Overweight and Obese Permeates Health Professionals

Québec City, Canada – October 8, 2001 Findings to be presented today at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) in Québec City, Canada, reveal that despite the fact that the majority of Americans are either overweight or obese, there is a stigma attached to both conditions.

"These findings demonstrate that images portrayed on television perpetuate negative stereotypes of overweight people and that biased associations about obese people exist even among health professionals who treat obesity," says Charles Billington, M.D., president of NAASO and professor in the Department of Medicine at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minn.

Researcher Bradley S. Greenberg, Ph.D., professor of communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., surveyed the distribution of body types portrayed in prime time television on six commercial broadcast networks, their behavior, appearance and personality, among other factors. The results showed that out of 1,018 major television characters from 56 different series, only three out of every 100 females were obese, compared to one out of every four in the real world. And while only five percent of the female and two percent of the male population is underweight, 36 percent of females and 12 percent of males on television had that body type. Moreover, overweight male and female television characters were less likely than their average weight counterparts to have romantic partners and friends and were more likely to be the object of ridicule, humor and to be shown eating.

"It’s surprising to find that in the media, overweight individuals are either ignored or associated with negative stereotypes," says Dr. Greenberg. "The misrepresentation of females was particularly stunning."

Researchers at Yale University investigated whether anti-fat bias exists among health professionals who treat obese patients. Eighty-four health professionals who treat obesity were assessed and asked to classify words according to their association with "Fat People" vs. "Thin People" as well as categorize words as "Good vs. Bad" and "Motivated vs. Lazy." The researchers discovered that even health care professionals have strong negative associations toward obese persons, though the bias was not as strong as among the general population. "The fact that bias shows up even among professionals dedicated to helping people with obesity, shows just how powerful and pervasive it is," says Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., director, Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

In a review of the research on bias and obesity, Marlene B. Schwartz, Ph.D., co-director, Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., found that the stigma against obesity is so prevalent that people who perpetuate it, fail to even notice what they’re doing. "It’s been said that weight discrimination is the last socially acceptable form of prejudice," says Dr. Schwartz. "The more we know about obesity bias and discrimination and how it affects those with weight problems, the better able we will be to deal with the vicious cycle of blame and punishment it can create."

Research for these studies was funded by the Rudd Institute, a foundation dedicated to documenting and understanding the stigma associated with obesity.