A recent social science study found that female obesity elicits disgust in people.
This study examined the relevance of disgust to evaluations of an obese target person, and the connection between disgust and prejudice toward that person. Participants (n = 598) viewed an image of an obese or non-obese woman, and then evaluated that woman on a number of dimensions (emotions, attitudes, stereotypes, desire for social distance). Compared with the non-obese target, the obese target elicited more disgust, more negative attitudes and stereotypes, and a greater desire for social distance.
😆 “Get away from me you lazy-eyed fatty!”
Furthermore, disgust mediated the effect of the target’s body size on all of the outcome variables (attitudes, stereotypes, social distance). Disgust plays an important role in prejudice and discrimination toward individuals with obesity, and might in part explain the pervasiveness of weight bias.
It’s a good idea to not look like a monster who elicits disgust in others.
Randall Parker speculates,
Maybe people are becoming less patriotic because of the long term rise in obesity. Think about it.
I thought about it, and there’s something to it. Obesity – particularly female obesity – aggravates trends toward social atomization and community breakdown because it compels people to get the hell away from the corpulent company of modern day circus freaks. In some regions of the US, obesity is the NORM! That’s a lot of pent-up disgust.
If patriotism is in large part an organic expression of community, racial, and ethnic pride channeled through loyalty for the nation, then obesity, by severing localized social bonds all over America, will undermine national patriotism, as the repulsive forces incited by fatties are scaled up.
When humans turn themselves into monsters, it’s inevitable that their society becomes monstrous.