Stigma Attached to Being Fat Is Going Global

A cross-cultural study of attitudes toward obesity has found that stigma against overweight people is becoming a cultural norm around the world, even in places where larger bodies have traditionally been valued. Researchers from Arizona State University surveyed people in nine diverse locations around the world and found negative attitudes toward fat bodies in every one.

The results suggest a rapid "globalization of fat stigma" in which overweight people are increasingly viewed as ugly, undesirable, lazy, or lacking in self control, the researchers said.

"Previously, a wide range of ethnographic studies have shown that many human societies preferred larger, plumper bodies," said Alexandra Brewis, a biological anthropologist and one of the study's authors.

"Plump bodies represented success, generosity, fertility, wealth, and beauty."

But those fat-positive values are quickly giving way to a more negative Western way of looking at obesity, such as symbolizing personal failing.

The researchers surveyed people in Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, the U.S., and the U.K. Also included were American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and Tanzania-cultures that have traditionally been thought of as fat-positive. People were asked if they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about body size. Some statements were fat-negative ("Fat people are lazy"), others were fat-positive ("A big woman is a beautiful woman").

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The responses across these diverse cultures were largely congruent with Western attitudes, the researchers found. What's more, the highest fat stigma scores were not in the U.S. or the U.K., "but rather Mexico, Paraguay, and-perhaps most surprisingly-in American Samoa," the researchers said.

The study will be published in the April issue of Current Anthropology.

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Source-ANI