HOW DOES WEIGHT STIGMA SMELL
Could our reaction to
an image of an overweight or obese person affect how we perceive odor? A trio
of researchers, including two from UCLA, says yes.
The researchers
discovered that visual cues associated with overweight or obese people can
influence one's sense of smell, and that the perceiver's body mass index
matters, too. Participants with higher BMI tended to be more critical of
heavier people, with higher-BMI participants giving scents a lower rating when
scent samples were matched with an obese or overweight individual.
The findings,
published online in the International Journal of Obesity and
scheduled to be presented today at the annual conference of the American
Psychosomatic Society, suggest that the extent of negative bias toward
overweight and obese people may be greater than previously believed.
"You wouldn't
think that not liking someone's weight could then be seen in a totally
different sensory modality, which makes us think, 'How else is weight stigma
affecting our lives that we don't even know about?'" said A. Janet
Tomiyama, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology. Tomiyama conducted the
research with Angela Incollingo Rodriguez, a UCLA doctoral student in
psychology, and Andrew Ward, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College.
"This is the
first step in proving that the consequences of weight stigma could be very
widespread in ways that we don't even know," Tomiyama said.
Incollingo Rodriguez,
the report's lead author, said while some people are overtly biased, others are
more subtle about it and may not even be aware that they harbor negative
feelings toward heavy people.
"There are no
checks and balances on weight stigma in the way you would see with racism,
sexism or homophobia," Tomiyama said.
In two related
studies, the researchers showed subjects one of two sets of images. Both sets
contained photographs of different people -- half who were visibly overweight
or obese, and half who were normal weight or thin -- along with a series of
"distractor" objects.
With each image they
viewed, participants were asked to smell a container of lotion tinted with a
different food coloring. Although all of the "scent samples" were
actually fragrance free, the researchers wanted to test whether participants
would perceive them to have different smells -- and whether their reactions
could be associated with the images they were viewing at the same time.
As each image
appeared, the experimenter placed the scent sample under the participant's
nose. Participants were instructed to rate each scent of 1 to 11. The more
positive the rating, the more positive the reported smell.
The researchers found
that when overweight or obese people were on the screen, participants gave
worse ratings to the scent samples. Images of average-sized or thin people
tended to trigger higher ratings.
The correlation
between visual stimuli and sense of smell is well-established: Previous
research has connected the perception of foul odors to feelings of disgust.
"Right now, we
only have a couple of ways to measure implicit attitudes, such as an
implicit-association test measure," Incollingo Rodriguez said. "We
wanted to see if looking at something you find unappealing or unpleasant could
influence how you evaluate a smell that has nothing to do with weight. This
shows that something is happening implicitly, and we may have tapped into a new
methodology for assessing people."
She said weight bias
can affect people's everyday lives in many different ways, including how they
are treated in social situations, the quality of medical care they receive, and
hiring and promotion decisions.
"It also
undermines people's motivation to diet and exercise," Incollingo Rodriguez
said. "If anything, stigma is a barrier to these lifestyle changes that
people commonly use to lose weight."
Weight bias can also
affect people's health, including by increasing their cortisol levels and by
causing them to eat more. In 2014, a study by Tomiyama in the journal JAMA
Pediatrics showed that simply being called "fat" at age 10 increased
a girl's chances of becoming overweight by the time she turned 19.
"By being aware
of our deep-seated attitudes regarding weight, we can begin to change our
behavior," Incollingo Rodriguez said.
Comments
Post a Comment