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Social stigma of obesity is bias or discrimination behaviors targeted at overweight and obese individuals because of their weight and high body fat percentage. Such can span one's entire life as long as excess weight is present, starting from a young age and lasting into adulthood. Studies also indicate overweight and obese individuals experience rates of stigma near prevalent to that of racial discrimination. Stigmatization of obesity is usually associated with increased health risks (morbidity) of being overweight or obese and the possibility of a shorter lifespan (mortality).
Obese people marry less often, experience fewer educational and career opportunities, and on average earn a lesser income than normal weight individuals. Although public support regarding disability services, civil rights, and anti-workplace discrimination laws for obese individuals have gained support across the years, overweight and obese individuals still experience discrimination, which may have detrimental implications in relation to both physiological and psychological health. These issues are compounded by the significant negative physiological effects that are already associated with obesity, which some have proposed may be caused in part by stress from the social stigma of obesity (or which may be made more pronounced as a result of that stress).
Anti-fat bias refers to prejudice assumptions that are based on an assessment of a person as being overweight or obese. It is also known as " fat shaming" or " fatphobia". Anti-fat bias can be found in many facets of society, and fat activists commonly cite examples of mass media and popular culture that pervade this phenomenon.
Anti-fat bias has been observed in groups hoping to become physical education instructors. In a study published in 2007, a group of 344 psychology or physical education majors at a New Zealand University were compared, and it was found that the prospective physical education teachers were more likely to display implicit anti-fat attitudes than the psychology majors.
A number of studies have found that health care providers frequently have explicit and/or implicit biases against overweight people, and it has been found that overweight patients may receive lower quality care as a result of their weight. Medical professionals who Bariatrics have been found to have strong negative associations toward obese individuals. The stress from obesity-related stigma may also cause negative health outcomes.
A 2004 study in preschool-aged children reported a preference for average-sized children over overweight children as friends. Overweight individuals often found themselves suffering repercussions in many facets of society, including legal and employment issues later in their life.
According to a 2010 review of published studies, interventions seeking to reduce prejudice and social stigma against fat and obesity are largely ineffective.
Fatphobia does not generally refer to a fear of obese people, but rather a socially constructed phenomenon of particular prevalence in the western world. People, often said to be living in the west, value healthy and strong bodies that prioritize agility, endurance and fertility - with focus on achievement and individual responsibility. Not only do such bodies associate the western world with similar ideals, but Lloyd deMause suggests the 'fitness/toughness craze' may also reflect preparations for war. The overabundance of calorically high, nutrient- and other essential vitamin and mineral-depleted food options more common in the western hemisphere is often associated with people who are against fat phobia. The 'fattening huts' of young girls in Nigeria however, represent beauty, marriageability and money – a direct reflection of the value of economic resource and food. There, fatness is a welcome sign of health, prosperity and maternity: linked to self-worth and sexuality also.
Fatphobia does not fear 'fat' but prejudice, discrimination, exclusion and preventable disease too: fears directly attributable to the myriad of social, political, historical, economic and cultural processes at work (that do not similarly exist in other cultures). In this way, fatphobia is a culturally derived phenomenon influencing relationships to food as well to the female form. Trends in 'blame, shame and stigma' have contributed to fat positivity and 'health at every size' movements, that create digital 'safe spaces' for activism and radical fat acceptance that seek to resist/shift such powerful cultural perspectives.
Anti-fat bias can be moderated by giving a mitigating context to the individual's appearance of obesity. For example, when told an individual was obese because of "overeating" and "lack of exercise", a higher implicit bias was found among study participants than those not provided with context. When the group was told that "genetics" was to blame, they did not exhibit a lowered implicit bias after the explanation.
Anti-fat bias is not a strictly Western cultural phenomenon. Instances of implicit anti-fat bias have been found across several cultures.
Additionally, recent work around physical appearance issues, body image, and anti-fat or obesity prejudice suggests that feelings about one's own appearance may stimulate downward physical comparisons with obese individuals in order to make one feel better about one's own physical appearance.
Even when overweight people are included in television, they often play minor, stereotyped roles. Nearly two thirds of the most popular children's movies contain negative portrayals of fat people, stereotyping them to be unintelligent, lazy, and evil. Fat television characters are more commonly seen eating and are less likely to be involved in romantic relationships compared to average weight television characters. Male characters are less commonly portrayed as having close friendships.
In 2007, another analysis sampled 135 scenes featuring overweight individuals from popular television programs and movies are coded for anti-fat humor. The majority of anti-fat humor found was verbal and directed at the individual in their presence. Additionally, a relationship was found between audience laughter and a male character poking fun at a female character's body, but that same relationship wasn't there when it was a female character ridiculing a fat male.
There is a great deal of empirical research to support the idea of thin ideal media, or the idea that the media tends to glorify and focus on thin actors and actresses, models, and other public figures while avoiding the use of overweight individuals.
Puhl et al. (2009) also reviewed how in entertainment, news reporting, and advertising, media is a particularly potent source of weight stigma. News reports have blamed individuals who are overweight and obese for various societal issues including prices of fuel, global temperature trends, and precipitating weight gain among their peers. The news media repeatedly engages in the "Headless Fatties" phenomenon, coined by Charlotte Cooper, in which images and videos only depict overweight individuals as bodies by cropping out their heads. This objectification happens in 72% of all news reports on obesity.
The University of California, Los Angeles, conducted a study that analyzed scientific research on weight and the news reports on such research. They looked for disparities in language, the cited causes of obesity, and proposed solution. News stories were more likely than the scientific articles to use dramatized language, words such as epidemic, crisis, war, and terrorism, and were more likely to cite individual behaviors as the causes and solutions to obesity, ignoring the systemic issues.
In September 2011, prominent nationally syndicated columnist Michael Kinsley (founding editor of Slate magazine) wrote, "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cannot be president: He is just too fat ... why should Christie's weight be more than we can bear in a president? Why should it even be a legitimate issue if he runs? One reason is that a presidential candidate should be judged on behavior and character ... Perhaps Christie is the one to help us get our national appetites under control. But it would help if he got his own under control first." Governor Christie responded on October 4, 2011, stating "The people who pretend to be serious commentators who wrote about this are among the most ignorant I've ever heard in my life. To say that, because you're overweight, you are therefore undisciplined—you know, I don't think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society, so that kind of stuff is just ignorant."
In 2013, Haley Morris-Cafiero's photography project "Wait Watchers", in which she photographed the reactions to her presence by random passers-by, went viral. New York magazine wrote, "The frequency with which Morris-Cafiero succeeds at documenting passersby's visible disdain for her body seems pretty depressing".
Research suggests that within the classroom teachers may perceive overweight individuals' work more poorly compared to average weight individuals. Students also perceive overweight individuals as being likely to have lower GPAs, and students are less likely to want to do groupwork with overweight individuals compared to average weight individuals. Research has also found that overweight females receive less financial support for education from their families than average weight females, after controlling for ethnicity, family size, income, and education. As individuals grow older they may be less likely to be admitted to college than individuals of an average weight, and in some cases, people were admitted to academic institutions then dismissed due to their weight.
Puhl and colleagues (2009) concluded from their review of weight stigma in education that current trends indicate students with obesity face barriers to educational success at every level of education. Reviewed research demonstrates that educators, particularly physical education teachers, report antifat attitudes toward their students with obesity, which may undermine educational achievement. Importantly, the education disparities for students with obesity appear to be strongest for students attending schools where obesity is not the norm. Several studies have evidenced that in environments such as these, students with obesity face greater educational disadvantages and are less likely to attend college, an effect that is particularly strong among women. Moreover, weight stigma in educational settings also affects interpersonal relationships (see "Interpersonal situations" below).
Weight stigma can lead to difficulty obtaining a job, worse job placement, lower wages and compensation, unjustified denial of promotions, harsher discipline, unfair job termination, and commonplace derogatory jokes and comments from coworkers and supervisors. In their review, Rebecca M. Puhl et al. find that employees with obesity report their weight as the most influential factor contributing to losing their job. Another review by Giel and colleagues (2010) found that certain stereotypes about employees with obesity are highly endorsed by employers and supervisors, in particular that they have poorer job performance and that they lack interpersonal skills, motivation, and self-control.
Both obese men and women were often less likely to get on the ballot in the first place. When it came to merely being overweight, women were seen underrepresented on the ballot, though men were not. This is consistent with previous research showing slightly overweight men tend not to experience the same discrimination as slightly overweight women.
However, when it came to the voting, both male and female candidates, whether obese or simply overweight, tend to get a lower share of the vote total than their more slender opponents. Some politicians have resorted to extreme weight loss measures, including surgery, to increase their elect-ability to political office.
In their 2009 review, Puhl and colleagues found that many studies provide evidence supporting the notion that health professionals (including doctors, nurses, medical students, fitness professional, and dietitians) consistently endorse negative stereotypes about patients with obesity, in particular ascribing to them culpability for their weight status. Weight stigma in the healthcare settings leads to impaired patient-provider communication, poorer doctor-patient relationships, poorer medical care and treatment (for example doctors spending less time with patients), and avoidance of the healthcare system all together on the part of the patient. However, it is important to point out that the evidence that has been reviewed thus far comes primarily from self-report studies. Therefore, Puhl and colleagues concluded that research examining actual health outcomes is needed. Overall, the impact of weight stigma in healthcare has become so problematic that many scholars have suggested that obesity-prevention programs should make minimizing stigma a priority.
In a 2017 study, results showed that 89% of obese adults had been bullied by romantic partners.
Weight-based teasing in childhood and adolescence has been associated with a variety of damages to psychosocial health, including reduced self-esteem and lower self-concept, higher rates of depression and , and even greater likelihood of entertaining suicidal thoughts. Further, weight-based teasing has been associated with higher rates of binge eating and unhealthy weight control (e.g., fasting, self-induced vomiting, laxatives, diet pills, skipped meals and smoking). Overweight adolescents who were bullied were also more likely to meet criteria for bulimia.
A survey of 7,266 children aged 11 to 16 conducted by the World Health Organization reported higher rates of physical victimization (e.g., being shoved) with increasing body mass index (BMI) among girls. Additionally, these results showed relational victimization (i.e., being excluded or having rumors spread about you) was reported more often at increasing BMI by both girls and boys. A separate survey of 7,825 students aged 11 to 17 also noted that, compared to average-weight peers, obese boys and overweight girls were more likely to be victims of bullying. Additionally, obese girls were more likely to be victims and perpetrators of bullying than their peers. Notably, overweight and obese adolescent girls also reported higher rates of smoking, drinking, and marijuana use relative to their normal-weight peers.
People who expect to be fat-shamed by healthcare providers are less likely to seek care for medical issues or for weight loss, even if the weight gain is caused by medical problems.
In terms of psychological health, researchers found that obese individuals demonstrated a lower sense of well-being relative to non-obese individuals if they had perceived weight stigmatization even after controlling for other demographic factors such as age and sex. Overweight and obese individuals report experiencing forms of internalized stigma such as body dissatisfaction as well as decreased social support and feelings of loneliness. In addition, similar to findings in adolescence, weight stigma in adulthood is associated with lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
In both adults and children with obesity, several reviews of the literature have found that across a variety of studies, there is a consistent relationship between experiencing weight stigma and many negative mental and physical health outcomes. These will be discussed separately in the sections below, although physical and mental health consequences are often intertwined, in particular those related to eating disorders.
Papadopoulos and Brennan (2015) recently found that across many reviewed studies of weight loss treatment-seeking adults, relationships emerged between experiencing weight stigma and both BMI and difficulty losing weight. However the findings are somewhat mixed. They also report evidence that experiencing weight stigma is related to poor medication adherence. Among weight loss treatment-seeking adults, experiencing weight stigma might exacerbate weight- and health-related quality of life issues. This review along with reviews by Vartanian and Smyth (2013) and Puhl and Suh (2015) have also found that across several studies and in both adults and children, experiencing weight stigma is related to decreased exercise behavior overall, as well as decreased motivation to exercise, decreased exercise self-efficacy, and increased food craving and tendency to overeat. These effects of weight stigma on exercise and physical activity emerge independent of body mass index, suggesting that weight stigma becomes a unique barrier to physical activity outside of barriers that may be associated with obesity in particular. Finally, across many studies, Puhl and Suh (2015) also found that experiencing weight stigma is related to many physiological consequences as well, including increased blood pressure, augmented cortisol reactivity, elevated oxidative stress, impaired glycemic control/elevated HbA1c, and increased systemic inflammation, all of which have notable consequences for physical health and disease.
Papadopoulos's 2015 review of the literature found that across several studies, this distress can manifest in anxiety, depression, lowered self-esteem, and substance use disorders, both in weight loss treatment-seeking individuals as well as community samples. Many empirical reviews have found that weight stigma has clear consequences for individuals suffering from eating and weight disorders (including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder), as it plays a unique role, over and above other risk factors, in perpetuating disordered eating psychopathology. These results have emerged in both adult and adolescent, as well as in male and female samples.
The study shows an interesting table that demonstrates how fast food consumption due to social and cultural pressures leads to body image shame and guilt, which, in many cases, leads people to search for comfort, creating a cycle of binge eating. This article makes it evident that shaming and forcing people into guilt for their actions does not help or solve the issue of obesity. Better alternatives include teaching people the mental and physical benefits of eating healthily versus eating unhealthily, but without resorting to shaming unhealthy eating habits.
Sociologist Sabrina Strings writes, in her book Fearing the Black Body, about the historical ways in which fatphobia emerged out of an attempt by white people to distance themselves from black people. In 1751, Denis Diderot published the Encyclopédie, which was the first publications to claim that black people were "fond of gluttony." In 1853, French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau claimed, about black people, that their "gluttonous nature to be one of their more base characteristics." (2025). 9781479886753, New York University Press. ISBN 9781479886753 In 1910, Charles Davenport founded the Eugenic Record Office, and he claimed that "obesity was a vile condition to be avoided. It was, moreover, racially inherited." Eugenics sentiment toward black people regarding their size was prevalent.
Black bodies are already stigmatized, which can result in violence when interacting with the social stigma of obesity. In a 2017 article published in the African American Review, one author cited the killing of Eric Garner as an example of this, as some excuses for using excessive force on Garner were his size, as he was an overweight man. The article explains how ableism, fatphobia, and racism interact to form a "double bind" in which violence is excused because fatness is already causing inherent injury, but necessary because the size of a large black person is a threat.
A paper published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine titled "Intersectionality: An Understudied Framework for Addressing Weight Stigma" focused on highlighting the intersectionality between weight stigma and health-related coping responses across several non-white racial and gendered groups. The findings of this publication demonstrated that there were no significant differences in weight stigma as a function of race or gender, having an overall equal representation across all racial groups analyzed. Nonetheless, results additionally demonstrated that different racial groups had differing ways of internalizing and coping with weight and health-related stigmas, which as a result heightened health risks. Results revealed that white women and men reported higher weight bias internalization in comparison to black women and men. Additionally, Hispanic women demonstrated to cope with weight stigma via disordered eating patterns more than black and white women. Along with this black women are less likely to deal with weight related stigma by developing eating disorders in comparison to white women. The results of this research article highlighted the importance of needing to increase research and policy attention to addressing weight and health-related stigma as an issue regarding prevention and treatment for obesity in order to consequently decrease weight-driven inequalities in communities and differing groups, primarily focused on race and gender.
"Fat" is the preferred term within the fat acceptance movement. Fat activists have reclaimed the term as a neutral descriptor in order to work against the stigma typically associated with the term. In fact, many fat activists will censor the word "obesity" when tweeting or citing it as "ob*sity" due to its pathologizing nature. The word "obesity" directly stems from the Latin word "obesus" which means "that has eaten itself fat". Fat activists will also use this Latin definition to show stigma in the word "obese" itself, as it places blame on the individual for their state.
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